Paralympian loses medals and equipment in Brazilian floods but is improvising to qualify for Paris

By MAURICIO SAVARESE
Associated Press

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil (AP) — Vanderson Chaves has faced many challenges in more than a decade as a Paralympic fencer but none as fearsome as the massive floods in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state. The waters washed away his equipment, dozens of medals, his passport and might have even thwarted his chances of reaching the Paris Games in September. His ground-floor apartment is in an elevated region of state capital Porto Alegre but that didn’t spare him from becoming one of the 230,000 people displaced by the floodwaters. Days later, his home remains submerged and his few remaining belongings fit in a car. It’s affecting his mental health ahead of two key competitions for him to qualify for the Paralympics.