Ozone Team Pilot, Rafa Saladini  has just won his second consecutive  Panamerican PG championship celebrated in Governador Valladares, Brazil.

He reports:

“I’m really thrilled to receive this gift of winning the panamerican twice in a row. 2020 and 2022.

I’ve been training myself to become more mentally and emotionally resilient. It doesn’t matter how technically good you become, if you are not mentally strong, you will never reach anywhere close to the very concept of performance excellency and mental/emotional resilience. And to me that’s what paragliding competitions are all about.

After flying 7 days in PWC Roldanillo, we had the brazilian nationals and the PWC Baixo Guandu, both with 7 nuclear tasks. My family was exhausted for having me so many days away. My wife and two kids were badly sick and needing my presence. It was only two days before the panamerican that my wife told me to go.

Eva, my 4 year old daughter yelled before I left: “If you are going again, you better win!!!” 

From that moment, the pressure was on!!

She was REALLY upset when I told her I was 2nd in the first task. “Papa, please turn yourself into a rocket , so you can win”. 

So I won the second task and the competition only to become her rocket !! Now that Eva knows I won the Gold Medal, she is finally accepting me back home.

Throughout the week, I was really sick so I could not keep my exercise routine, and to compensate I meditated for 15min every morning before breakfast and had a mandatory appointment with Noam, Level Master of my Chess App. Every morning I would play 6 to 8 games before the task to warm up my brain, and of course I would lose them all.

I tried to talk to Noam so many times

But his silence is Cruel

His moves are his savage way of teaching

The only way of communication is to play

He dominates the game with no chance for his opponent

I never beated Noam. I played probably more than 400 games against him. Every loss, a lesson. Every “almost”, a hope that I have the potential to beat him. After so many silent tries and bitter “almost victories”, this last wednesday‘s morning, after winning the previous task, I could scream out loud: 

Check Mate!! 

I beated Noam for the first time. If it is coincidence or not, my paragliding level is raising as my chess level raises, and Im really happy about it…”

Congrats Rafa and cheers from all the Ozone team!

For full Results visit: https://civlcomps.org/event/5th-fai-pan-american-paragliding-championship/results

Photos courtesy of Rafa Saladini and Nick Greece.

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