Intended for healthcare professionals

Career Focus

Paralympic medal winner

BMJ 2004; 329 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.329.7457.s17 (Published 10 July 2004) Cite this as: BMJ 2004;329:s17
  1. Tiago Villanueva, intercalating medical student
  1. University of Lisbon, Portugal

Abstract

Tiago Villanueva catches up with Portuguese paralympic swimmer and medical student Leila Marques

How many medical students will have the opportunity to participate in this year's Olympic Games in Athens as athletes, with a real chance to win a medal? Leila Marques is one such student, and she is also about to graduate from the University of Lisbon, Portugal.

One crucial detail distinguishes Leila from many others: she lacks her right forearm and will therefore represent Portugal in the upcoming Paralympic Games. Having won many international swimming competitions over the past few years, Leila is a world class athlete, with serious aspirations of climbing on to the podium this summer.

Leila's forearm had to be amputated because of a congenital malformation. For rehabilitation purposes she began swimming at three years of age: “It was known that my left upper limb was going to grow heavier than the right one, and that I would have back problems because of that.” In 1994, she was invited to enter a swimming competition in the club that she still represents today.

Her swimming career started long before she decided to pursue a medical degree. Only in her eighth grade did she become fascinated with the “neatness and harmony of the human body,” while studying biology.

One day, her two worlds collided: “Paralympic athletes are categorised into different internationally recognised classes. I was classified [by international assessors] as S9 in the motor deficiency category.” (S10 is the most serious deficiency and S1 the least.)

How has her swimming career affected her academic training? “During the week it was impossible for me to study. I just caught ideas here and there. Furthermore, when the morning training would take a bit longer than usual, I would not get in on time for the morning lecture, let alone all the lectures I missed when I was away competing. The exams sometimes coincided with the competitions, so I had to ask to change the date.”

Still, Leila managed to reach her final year without failing any year. According to her, it is a matter of prioritising: “When important championships are coming up swimming becomes the priority, but the faculty has always taken precedence when exams were around the corner, although I made sure I never left either of them behind, or I would risk not being able to catch up. Failing a year was something that I really did not want to happen.”

During her preclinical years Leila had to contend with the attitudes of some of the teaching staff: “There was that preconception that high competition athletes were taking someone else's place.” In her clinical years the situation improved: “Since I try to work hard to keep up with my colleagues, teachers end up realising the effort involved and even find it amusing. When I was competing in Argentina one consultant would read the sports papers every morning before my colleagues arrived on the wards, so that they could learn what was happening.”

As a final year medical student in Portugal, Leila has already completed her undergraduate exams and works full time in hospital as part of her pregraduation internship. But during the Olympics she will have to take three weeks off.

But Leila has also had to miss work for other reasons. She now belongs to Team Visa (Visa is her new sponsor), a project comprising about 50 athletes, both Olympic and Paralympic, from 20 European countries aiming at sponsoring and supporting Olympic and Paralympic sports. She therefore often has to attend functions and other events. “The other day I had to miss work for a couple of days to shoot a commercial for television. I think that it is really important for people with disabilities to realise that they will not achieve anything if they lock themselves at home. I have the chance to inspire people if they realise they are looking at someone who is at first glance less likely than others to become a high achiever, but who still becomes successful.”

Her plans for when her swimming days are over include a possible career in rehabilitation medicine, but she hopes to remain connected to swimming, maybe as the doctor for the national swimming team or as international assessor.

But for the time being, her swimming career continues.

She is aiming high for the Paralympic Games in the summer: “I really want to reach the final of the 100 metres breaststroke and the 100 metres butterfly. It's very difficult to promise a medal; it requires a lot of things happening simultaneously.”

She has been to Atlanta and Sydney and is now off to Athens, but she is already dreaming of Beijing in 2008—if her swimming results continue to justify her sacrifices. She looks at swimming with the same attitude as medicine: “Whether in sports or in medicine, you have to ask a lot of yourself and be methodical to reach your goals. It takes a lot of personal investment to be one of the best.”