life is full of challenges and since
I know myself by people I’m moved to.
challenges and had to break many
barriers very pleased I’m André
my childhood was a
very quiet childhood and has great
memories of childhood I remember that
always in my childhood was on top
of a skateboard or on top of a bicycle
or jumping wall or climbing a tree and
always my mother was back there
screaming is not going to get out of there
to be careful this is dangerous
so in childhood I always had a lot of
lots of energy and this large amount
of energy in adolescence ended up
making it a very
great to have my own
independence then when I was 16
I decided to look for my first
employment
I got my first job and since
that moment I already had the objective
to be financially independent and
to achieve independence through
a dream and my dream was to have a motorcycle
I was 17 when I was able to perform my
I dreamed I could buy my motorcycle.
This for me at that moment was my
first great achievement was my
first big win and it was also
an incredible sense of freedom
imagine the 17-year-old boy having the
his own motorcycle and the freedom to
come over
So what for me at that moment?
It was incredible but one day
home with that same bike
I had an accident
I fell and went sliding down a
sidewalk and irony of fate might
there is a plaque
on that sidewalk that had a one plate
of a hospital and I hit
on this plate and when I went to get up
pick up the bike I saw that had lost
piece of my leg and my leg
was about 10 or 12 meters from
This distance, a guy took my
leg brought up to me handed me and I
I remember that I was being rescued and
I would look at my leg and close the
eyes and spoke this is a nightmare is a
nightmare a nightmare will pass will
pass will pass and open the eyes of the
nightmare did not pass and closed
again the eyes and a nightmare is a
nightmare will open your eyes
It was not the nightmare, it did not pass.
it was a nightmare it was real life
that day I was amputated below the
I knee to my right leg and I woke up
the next day amputated above the knee
in the hospital that day I lost one
leg but I got a new life and I had
make a choice from that
when I sat or cried for
the rest of my life or I would get up and
kept walking and that was
the decision that I decided to take
I got up and kept walking and
this was very important because more or
less than three months later the universe
understanding that conspired in favor and me
led to a super adventure was
invited to a trip to nepal
this trip is a trip to do
rafting for six days of rapids
level 5 and 6
and this trip completely changed my
mother 7 because on this trip there both in
nepal from the other side of the world
soon after an accident I was there and
I thought it was good if I’ve been here for three
months after the accident with one leg
only making rapids level 5 and 6
so I can do anything and
there begins another part of the
trajectory when I came back to Brazil
I started to create my own
prostheses to continue making the
sports I already did to do
other new sports
and I started to create my own
prosthesis to do eight board after
to do katz surf
I have been developing several types of
different prostheses played tricks
have the mechanical turner tidy up
Something later made another in that
half way I lost several
legs on the way to avoid in the region
from cadiz anf lose leg walking from
bike board and was part of the process
because every time I lost a leg and
if I was motivated to create a better leg
or safer or more rigid, or finally
with different mobility, remembering
that at that time the prostheses did not
they are what they are today this time it was 97
so there is no proof
specific to make sport not
there was a specific test for water
so I had to learn to create my own
own way of making prosthesis
So at age 21, life called me to
Another challenge is perhaps a challenge for
most difficult of my life, my father was
an incredible guy a really person
especially an example of a man and when I
He was 21 years old and he was traveling and he
suffered an accident and died
and on that day three facts have changed
completely my life the first
fact was that I lost a person I
loved and loves to this day.
person who was my reference who was
everything to me
second fact was that at age 21 I had
to take care of a family that
until then he had never created at the time
My mother no longer worked for me.
had a brother who was 14 and the
my sister was 11 years old
then at 21 years usually when a
boy is not even prepared to
sustain yourself
is not yet informed of the
responsibility and called me a
different way and I had to learn
What is putting money at home at 21
years
so this was enough for me
different in this phase and the third fact
was the fact that my father at the time of
a company
50 percent of a company I inherited
that 50% of the company and my father had a
partner with the other 50% and that partner
When my father died, he asked me to
power of attorney with broad powers to
run the company because he was very young
and this power of attorney was given to him and
so he ran company during the
next two years
And at 23, life calls me for a
another completely different challenge
because when he had the city and discovered
that he had set up a
another company competing with us
our money without us knowing then
It was at this moment that I had to
take over the family company in a
a rather difficult condition
very hard financial condition
at the time we had 101 protests
three bankruptcy petitions and some
million of debt and I did not have
idea of what a company was to me.
I remember that at the time the lawyer arrived
to me and he spoke like this
Now you deduct the duplicates and
touching the company and I will come to him
was thus doctor that the same duplicate
he put his hand on his forehead and said putz
screwed if this kid does not know he’s
a duplicate how it will direct a
company but I always felt like
I’ve always been curious and always had a lot of
desire to learn
but what I think even saved me
it was my innocence because in that
moment I looked for all the
suppliers they called and contains
I told them the truth.
suppliers I need three things
The first thing I need to know is
How much do I owe? I do not know how I should.
so please be true
The second thing I need is that I
I’ll pay everyone but I can not
pay interest
so please do not charge me interest and the
The third thing that I need you to do
leave me alive or if you
provided an enormous amount of
raw materials and packaging sends me
a little bit of each thing a little
of this 50 kg in that raw material 30
the other so that I can stay
stay alive and continue the company and so
was made
I remember that
a black notebook and I marked everyone
the suppliers I owed in that
notebook and I received at that time
1,500 and 2,000 reais per day in the company and
I deposited those provided by
suppliers 100 reais to 1 150 reais
To the other
two hundred reais for the other and I
I remember them the next day many
Sometimes they denied being angry and
How very loose are you?
me and I do not know how many thousands of
real
and you send me 150 reais and I
responded well but we did not combine
that I was going to pay what I got for today
and tomorrow I pay a little bit more and that
in a way it has created an empathy
is not a sensitivity in the
suppliers and they started to think
Good, this kid has no money.
but he has good will and that of a
has helped the company a great deal
people have been recovering the company
get to pay everyone went to learn
really about business was studying
to understand how a company works
the company has been surviving has been growing
and today it is a company that has much more
employee is very successful in
market 15 years later is completely
different from what the company I was
I got back there and during all this
another very important challenge in
My life, my mother was a woman.
amazing wonder that had a
very strong connection with my father I think
that the moment my father died she
feels a very large void and when I
26 years old, we discovered that the
my mother had cancer and few
days later she died
and once again I saw that you lost a
leg too hard but lost people
that we love is much harder
and then at age 28, he made another
turnaround invited me to another
challenge
By this time I was riding a kart.
long time and I always wanted to
snowboarding and had done two
snowboarding experiences and the two
very frustrated because I had gone to
snow and I had not managed to stay
right foot because he did not have a
specific for snowboarding and these
Twice I came back to Brazil.
finished to do a specific test
for snowboarding but was on the
I would run very hard not working
able to do but then came the
opportunity to go to the states
United
and I was in the United States one
person told me so look have a face
who was in the war came back from the war
returned imputed and they in the borderô and he
made a specific prosthesis by the board
I was in California the company that
face was in utah
I called the company a girl
answered and said to me so I asked
in your own speech, see if you want to
prosthesis, no problem, you come to
here it is
after a week with us and the people
puts the most free title to the test
the area was so look I do not have a
I’m going back to Brazil in two days.
so I’d like you to spend your
credit card and send me the
herself by mail and she laughed and
Face, you’re crazy, nobody buys one.
proof by mail but this decision was
very important because this decision
completely changed my life she
sent her own by mail after
I came back to Brazil and then
I started snowboarding from
truth
soon after a while there is cpb and
to the CNB that the snow committee was
looking for someone to try
winter Paralympic Games
so I was invited to make a
proof
I went to this event by chance in this
her arm was broken.
head pulling the sling to anyone
to see that I had a broken arm I did
the test with the arm broken after
hit can decide and I left
but this decision was also very
important because it has changed
completely my life too
because I passed the test there cbdn
invited me to be an athlete
then they sent me in the states
united to train I joined the
world championships
That’s when I learned what it was like to be a
athlete of high performance the athlete of
high performance it does not work with
seconds
the high performance athlete works
with thousandths of seconds the difference
have a gold medal and you will be
disqualified on snowboard are
milliseconds
then planning the committee
had to rate Brazil was
anticipated in four years
and I was the first athlete to score the
Brazil for an Olympiad of
winter in history and when I arrived at
I did not have the slightest
idea of what was Olympics had not
idea of the magnitude that was Olympiads
I had no idea that I was assisted.
for thousands of people
I had no idea I would be on my side.
of the best athletes in the world
my plug only really dropped when
I was there right?
just so you have an idea to
she is assisted in winter Olympics
for more or less 3 billion people
around the planet then it means
really a magnificent good event and was
very interesting that at the entrance of the
opening ceremony a little bit
before entry
We were waiting to come in and
I received information that also
It was very interesting. It was very cool.
the cbdn president came to me and
say so look since you were the
first athlete to rate brazil
So you’re going to take the flag yourself.
will be the flag bearer of Brazil in the
and this was one of the most
of my life is not to lead
the brazilian flag can wield until
the honor of bearing the brazilian flag
in Olympics and I think that was a
big win for me
and here’s a video on the
olympics
[Music]
This was another day, too.
important for the title was the day of
final competition
and on that day I carried some
drops of cans on each shoulder
[Music]
I was a little nervous at first
down and got in a lot of trouble
I saw the best athletes falling and the
better ones are falling because they really
the difficult thing
[Music]
[Music]
I think this end has a special reason
because when I lost my leg and mine
Dad got really bad and I really like it
that he had here to see all this
because he deserved as much as he
My mother is here to see.
What happened so many years later is
because at that moment I was very
worried that he did not have a life
[Music]
normal good and now many years later
It’s like the best places in the world.
[Applause]
life is a great adventure and of course the
adventures continue
recently we made a
documentary on the off channel called hubs
finally a documentary and a 600km book
of kite surfing being pulled by the wind with
a plank in the foot
seven days were going out and going
even the sheets in Maranhão
maranhão
means yet another adventure
amazing and my next big
challenge is to be able to
brazil for the upcoming games
Paralympic Winter Games in Korea
south next year
[Music]
and on that day that I suffered the accident
someone had told me that one day I would go
be a high-performance athlete and the
I was going to the Olympics one day.
carry the brazilian flag
I would never have believed
so I believe in ourselves we are
much stronger much more powerful than
that people imagine
the mind sends the body obeys
thank you so much
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
”
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