Will to win

The paralympic athlete Hristo Gerginski makes a point of passing higher above the bar not only before the eyes of the umpires, but in life, too. And he succeeds

by Anelia Dionisova
photos Minko Minev

Hristo Gerginski overcomes the grilles of the stadium of the National Sports Academy in order to reach the spot for his morning training. While he moves, his body bends into a peculiar arch. Minutes later, one realizes why. When this man changes into a red outfit with the national flag, under the hem of his sports trousers one can see a trainer and the end of a prosthesis strewn with metal spikes. Nevertheless, the 46-year-old Hristo Gerginski could hardly be placed in the category of invalids. He hates that word himself.
“It is important to be competitive”, Hristo believes and upon seeing him running along the track, one would not claim otherwise. Having just one leg, he competes at Olympic Games, studies biomechanics, creates prostheses, teaches, he is writing a book and takes care of his family. He says he manages to do all that because he does not rely on somebody else’s help. After all, he has lived that way ever since he was 15. Back then, the teenager – an athlete and one of the young hopes of the town of Troyan, located in the Balkan mountain range, lost his father and his ....

Read in ABITARE 009