Emilio Sanchez Vicario (Madrid, 1965) was the greatest exponent of Spanish tennis in the 1980s and became world number 1 in doubles, in addition to being captain of the team that won the third World Championship in 2008. Davis Cup for Spain after win in Argentina. He retired in 1997 (“You don't retire, they retire you, because young players are stronger and faster,” he says) and launched an ambitious project that he had been thinking about for a long time. “I always had in my head create opportunities in life through tennis and studies, creating a center where these two things could be combined. In Europe, there was no place to train and study. In my time, you practically had to leave school to play and only a few made it…”, he explains.
After guiding her sister Arantxa through the women's circuit The opportunity arises to set up the center he had in mind in Barcelona. This is how the Emilio Sánchez Academywho has just turned 25 and is Emilio's pride. “I was clear that opportunities had to be offered through tennis and education. You can't just focus on tennis because there are very few who will make it. We have trained hundreds and hundreds of players who have gone on to play university tennis, also spectacular professionals like Andy Murray, Grigor Dimitrov or Svetlana Kuznetsovawho studied here as a child and then became a professional, but the normal student goes to the United States, continues playing and makes a career,” he explains. The Barcelona academy was followed by another in Florida and another in Dubai. The former tennis player prioritizes training, although he acknowledges that “Andy Murray and his company are the attraction, the ones who get promoted, the ones who hold up a mirror because people are motivated by triumphs, but the most important thing is that the student achieves everything.” tools you can apply in your life. If he achieves it in tennis, that's great, but if he gets a Michelin star or is the best on the New York Stock Exchange… it fulfills me the same way.
However, the elder Sánchez Vicario noticed that he was missing something that could help him change the world. AND In 2010 he founded the Foundation named after him to “help any disabled person in any racket sport”. Wheelchair tennis or projects for people with diverse intellectual abilities in Barcelona, Madrid (Down syndrome), Seville (autism, Asperger, mental disabilities…) and Toledo (people with spinal cord injuries and with mobility problems) now spend a large part of their time. Martín de la Puente and Daniel Caverzaschi, 4th and 19th in the world rankings for wheelchair tennis, even train at the facilities.
“We have children who play tennis or paddle tennis with strong and serious disabilities and they improve a lot. In the end it is the same mission: to try to do that through tennis or racket sports people live better. What these children go through is cruel, the desire to go and train and play…”, says Emilio, before referring to the Casper Toura project in memory of Casper Fernández, a student at the Academy who died of cancer at the age of 16. “Children with cancer, due to the heavy treatment they have to undergo, cannot play sports and we have started developing a virtual reality system so that they can play without having to do anything practically. This project is in progress. He to be able to help “It's worth being who you are and getting resources to people who need them,” he concludes.