Por CBTM
They seek him here, they seek him there; Edimilson Pinheiro is everywhere; he is a dedicated follower of table tennis and he is Ellsner Cornetti's right hand man.
Ellsner Cornetti is the Events Manager for the Brazilian Table Tennis Confederation and the Tournament Director at both the Latin American and Liebherr Brazilian Open Championships.
Edimilson Pinheiro speaks English fluently and is always present to help when necessary; furthermore, somehow he's managed to fit playing in the Liebherr Brazilian Open into his schedule!
No Practice
He's had little time to practise for the Men's Singles event, his English language skills have been in too greater demand!
So predictably he suffered defeats at the hands of
Smile
At the end of both matches there was a smile on his face from the man who hails from the state on Minas Gerais, he was born in Capinópolis some six hundred kilometres from
Those are the facts but there is much more to the unruffled Edimilson Pinheiro than being a good table tennis player and a willing worker in the cause of sport.
Achievement
The fact that he can walk, lead a normal life and play the sport he loves so much is an achievement; at the age of two he contracted poliomyelitis and whilst children of a similar age where playing football, running and jumping, he was confined to a wheelchair for four years. He couldn't even stand up.
"I took the first polio vaccine but I never took the second", said Edimilson Matias Pinheiro. "I fell ill with polio, my muscles didn't develop."
Tragedy
At school, children who had ridiculed him when he started began to accept him and the days of being an outcast were seemingly coming to an end when tragedy struck.
At the age of only thirty-seven his mother was killed in a road traffic accident, he was only thirteen years old at the time.
Consistent Factor
The one consistent factor in his life has been table tennis; it has kept mind and body together.
He cannot move like Ryu Seung Min but he plays table tennis very well; he qualifies for Category Nine in Paralympic table tennis and he doesn't moan about his misfortunes in life.
Number One
Nowadays, he is
Furthermore he is the Secretary-General of the Americas Table Tennis Paralympic Committee and the Brazilian Payers' Representative on the Brazilian Paralympic Committee.
Table tennis is very much his life and he gives a great deal back to the sport.
The Kinks
In the 1960s at the height of `Flower Power' the Kinks had two number one hits in the music charts with `Substitute' and `A Dedicated Follower of Fashion`.
There is no substitute for Edimilson Pinheiro but the lyrics of `A Dedicated Follower of Fashion' are relevant. They went: `They seek him here, they seek him there, they seek him everywhere, he is a dedicated follower of fashion'.
For `fashion' substitute table tennis, for `him' substitute Edimilson Pinheiro!
ITTF - Ian Marshall
