Nass­er Khan

Loos­ing your abil­i­ty to see must be one of the tough­est chal­lenges to over­come. Just imag­ine los­ing your sight in your ear­ly thir­ties like Car­los Greene.

Born and raised in Wa­ter­loo, Cara­pichaima, cen­tral Trinidad, where he re­sides with his fam­i­ly, 46-year-old Greene be­came blind in 2000, with­in the space of four months, due to acute glau­co­ma. Los­ing his sight and his sub­se­quent de­ter­mi­na­tion to over­come his dis­abil­i­ty has led to Greene, a Hum­ming Bird Sil­ver Medal awardee, be­com­ing a top par­a­lympic ath­lete over the years.

Greene re­cent­ly rep­re­sent­ed us at the Toron­to Para­pan Games where he missed medal­ing by a nar­row mar­gin (ten cen­time­tres) in the shot put event since an in­jury pre­vent­ed him from com­pet­ing in his pet event–pow­er­lift­ing, for which he has be­come well known on the world cir­cuit.

When Greene be­came blind over 14 years ago, he found an emo­tion­al out­let through ex­er­cise (the gym in par­tic­u­lar). It quick­ly be­came a form of ther­a­py for him. He said that when he ex­er­cis­es, he is on a nat­ur­al "high". His in­struc­tors at the gym en­cour­aged him to en­ter a com­pe­ti­tion and he has nev­er looked back since.

His wife of 21 years and his three daugh­ters are a tremen­dous source of in­spi­ra­tion to him. He is adamant about show­ing his chil­dren and oth­ers that a dis­abil­i­ty is no ex­cuse to not strive to be the best. He al­so be­lieves that his dis­ci­pline, his train­ing, and his even­tu­al suc­cess will be a source of in­spi­ra­tion for all.

Over the past nine years, he has com­pet­ed and medalled at sev­er­al re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tions. At the ma­jor­i­ty of these com­pe­ti­tions Car­los was the on­ly blind com­peti­tor. Among the many places he has com­pet­ed are Guatemala, New Zealand, Aru­ba, Flori­da, Del­hi, Guyana, Puer­to Ri­co, Cay­man Is­lands, Lon­don and most re­cent­ly, at the Para­pan Games in Toron­to.

Some of his gold medal per­for­mances: 2008 at the IB­SA In­ter­na­tion­al Blind Sports As­so­ci­a­tion/IPF World Pow­er­lift­ing Cham­pi­onships, Mi­a­mi, Flori­da, where he broke 11 world records to be­come the first pow­er­lifter to win a gold medal for T&T in a World Cham­pi­onship Event; 2009, the IB­SA In­ter­na­tion­al Blind Sports As­so­ci­a­tion/IPF 2009 World Pow­er­lift­ing Cham­pi­onships, Mi­a­mi, Flori­da, break­ing sev­en world records; 2011, North Amer­i­can Pow­er­lift­ing Fed­er­a­tion/In­ter­na­tion­al Pow­er­lift­ing Fed­er­a­tion (NAPF/IPF) Cham­pi­onships, Mi­a­mi, Flori­da; 2013, 11th An­nu­al North Amer­i­can Pow­er­lift­ing Fed­er­a­tion/In­ter­na­tion­al Pow­er­lift­ing Fed­er­a­tion (NAPF/IPF) Cham­pi­onships.

In 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2012, he was nom­i­nat­ed for the "Sports­man of the Year" Award. Thus far, he is the Caribbean's on­ly blind pro­fes­sion­al pow­er­lifter.In Ju­ly 2012, Greene par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Amer­i­can track and field par­a­lympic tri­al, where he won a Sil­ver Medal in the shot put and Bronze Medal in the dis­cus event.He is cur­rent­ly in train­ing for the 2016 Par­a­lympics Games, which will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Q: Tell us a bit more about your­self. For ex­am­ple, where did you grow up, your school­ing, meet­ing your wife, your chil­dren/fam­i­ly?

A: Car­los Greene was born in a lit­tle sug­ar cane and fish­ing vil­lage called Wa­ter­loo. I have five broth­ers and two sis­ters. I spent my first few years with my grand­par­ents. I have al­ways been in­volved in sport from a young age, and I have al­ways been in­volved in com­mu­ni­ty work.

I went to Wa­ter­loo Pres­by­ter­ian School and rep­re­sent­ed the school in foot­ball, crick­et, vol­ley­ball and run­ning. Then I went to Ch­agua­nas Ju­nior Sec­ondary and con­tin­ued to rep­re­sent in foot­ball, crick­et, run­ning and ta­ble ten­nis. I grad­u­at­ed from Ju­nior Sec­ondary and I re­ceived an award for phys­i­cal ed­u­ca­tion.

Then I went to Cara­pichaima Se­nior Com­pre­hen­sive, where I rep­re­sent­ed in foot­ball, bad­minton and run­ning, and even­tu­al­ly cap­tained the foot­ball team. I then spent two years at the Presto Presto Youth Camp where I stud­ied tai­lor­ing and rep­re­sent­ed the camp in run­ning and ta­ble ten­nis.I met my wife in Oc­to­ber 1989, and we got mar­ried in Au­gust 1993. We have three beau­ti­ful chil­dren, Re­bekah, Re­an­na and Re­nee. Re­an­na was just suc­cess­ful in her SEA ex­am and she passed for her first choice, Bish­op Anstey High School, Port-of-Spain. I am so proud of her.

As a blind per­son, what are some of the chal­lenges you face both in your dai­ly life and in your sport?

As a blind per­son, es­pe­cial­ly liv­ing in T&T, it is hard be­cause the phys­i­cal in­fra­struc­ture (eg side­walks, no build­ing codes) is not de­signed for us. Ven­dors in the street block walk­ways, side­walk DJs make it im­pos­si­ble to hear when you walk the street, dis­re­spect by the heads of the same sport­ing as­so­ci­a­tions that we rep­re­sent. I have ap­pealed to the au­thor­i­ties and even spo­ken to those side­walk DJs. I keep push­ing and not ac­cept­ing the lim­its that are placed on me. I do see some lit­tle glimpses of hope that can make a bet­ter fu­ture.

When and how did you come to be in­volved in the sport of pow­er­lift­ing?

Af­ter join­ing the gym in Jan­u­ary 2003, I re­mem­bered a young in­struc­tor by the name of Justin Joseph telling me, "Do you know how strong you are? I have seen men in here for years and have nev­er see them move weights like you. You should com­pete in an up­com­ing pow­er­lift­ing cham­pi­onship."

He left on­ly to re­turn with the head in­struc­tor, Juan Carve, and my per­son­al in­struc­tor, Kevin Da Cos­ta, on­ly to ask, "Would you think about com­pet­ing?" My im­me­di­ate re­sponse was, "I have noth­ing to lose." And the jour­ney in­to the life of Car­los Greene, the strong man, be­gan. I re­mem­ber clear­ly 2004, 2005, there were no cham­pi­onships in T&T, then I heard of the North Amer­i­can Pow­er­lift­ing Fed­er­a­tion host­ing a cham­pi­onship in Puer­to Ri­co in 2006.

Im­me­di­ate­ly, I be­gan to pre­pare for this cham­pi­onship. Then two months be­fore the cham­pi­onship, I fell in­to an open man­hole. The next three months was spent in bed, and thoughts of my pow­er­lift­ing cham­pi­onship were dy­ing. The mo­ment I felt a bit bet­ter, Iwas in the gym. I missed the 2006 cham­pi­onship, but my heart was now set on the 2007 cham­pi­onship in Guatemala.In 2011, a new de­sire erupt­ed in me to be the first blind per­son from the Caribbean to win a par­a­lympic medal. By 2012, I was com­pet­ing in the Lon­don 2012 Par­a­lympic Games.

What are your most prized pos­ses­sions: one tan­gi­ble, one in­tan­gi­ble?

In­tan­gi­ble is the hu­man spir­it. Many peo­ple al­ways ask me how I over­came, and I can­not take much praise for it be­cause I got that strength from some­thing with­in that was built in from cre­ator God. When par­ents talk to me, they say thank you for in­spir­ing my son and mak­ing an im­pact on so­ci­ety.My tan­gi­ble pos­ses­sions are the nu­mer­ous medals and awards and hon­ors that were giv­en to me as I rep­re­sent­ed T&T, and won at var­i­ous events.

What ad­vice would you give to some­one con­tem­plat­ing a vo­ca­tion/ca­reer such as yours?

First­ly, I would tell them do not look at the glam­our that comes across on the TV. The life of the ath­lete is not easy, one bad move or one in­jury and it can all be over. I will nev­er dis­cour­age a young per­son that is com­ing in­to sport. I would al­so tell them to add ed­u­ca­tion as a tool, be­lieve in your­self and work hard, and it will all be pos­si­ble.

What are a cou­ple of your most mem­o­rable per­for­mances?

My first two mem­o­rable per­for­mances were my first two ma­jor cham­pi­onships, Guatemala 2007 and Christchurch, New Zealand, 2007.I re­mem­ber work­ing hard to go to Guatemala and walk­ing the streets and peo­ple ask­ing me "Why are you here?" And when I told them, they said that it is im­pos­si­ble for me to com­pete as a blind man.

I re­mem­ber in Guatemala, one Sat­ur­day evening, when my name and coun­try was called. I walked out with the coach, he said to me that I am on my own now and my knees buck­led. I called on all my strength as I walked un­der the bar, and as the judge said squat and I squat, the crowd erupt­ed.

It was al­most the same in New Zealand six months lat­er. I did not win, I came sec­ond on both oc­ca­sions. How­ev­er, every­one said that I was the re­al win­ner. Every­one want­ed pho­tos with me, and I could not even get to the wash­room be­cause I was bom­bard­ed. The New Zealand pow­er lift­ing fed­er­a­tion said they have nev­er seen some­one im­pact an en­tire are­na like that.

Pow­er­lift­ing isn't just about mov­ing a heavy thing–it's about un­der­stand­ing how your body works in re­la­tion to tim­ing and mo­men­tum and in­er­tia, and ba­si­cal­ly the physics of move­ment.

Tell us about that.

It is proven that when some­one los­es his sight, that co­or­di­na­tion and di­rec­tion al­so goes with it. Oth­er than the dy­nam­ics to main­tain a straight line with the weights, you have to train your body to stand erect and fo­cus on that in­vis­i­ble line, it takes a lot of prac­tice and de­ter­mi­na­tion and courage. Many peo­ple at­tempt­ed to do the squat with their eyes closed and they were all un­suc­cess­ful for many dif­fer­ent rea­son. I re­mem­ber one coach say­ing he took the shot put and closed his eyes, and he couldn't think of what was the next thing to do.

Tell us about your in­spi­ra­tion to do what you do so well.

Each per­son is born with spe­cif­ic gifts and tal­ents and that is who or what makes you who you are. To me, it just comes nat­u­ral­ly. When it all hap­pened, I still can't ful­ly an­swer. I re­mem­ber the first time I was asked to do pow­er­lift­ing and I ac­cept­ed the chal­lenge, and I looked for some­one to coach me with the shot put for five years, and then Lester Os­una an­swered the chal­lenge.

Al­so, I had a dream from child­hood to be a mo­ti­va­tion­al speak­er, and for many years, I did not have the courage to stand on a stage and face peo­ple. Af­ter a while, just like clock­work, every­thing be­gan com­ing to­geth­er. I be­lieve it was the mo­ment when I delet­ed "Can't" from my vo­cab­u­lary. We can be our largest ob­sta­cle and even de­ter our­selves from be­com­ing the per­son who God has de­ter­mined we should be.

Of all your ac­co­lades, prizes and awards, which do you rate as ex­treme­ly spe­cial?

The Hum­ming­bird Sil­ver Medal that I re­ceived in the 2010 In­de­pen­dence Award cer­e­mo­ny. Be­cause as a child, I looked at the Wit­co sports­man and sports­woman award and In­de­pen­dence award cer­e­mo­ny and dreamt that some­day that the Pres­i­dent of our twin is­land re­pub­lic will pin a medal on my chest.

What is the best com­pli­ment you have ever re­ceived?

In 2012, I rep­re­sent­ed T&T at the Arnold Sports Fes­ti­val in the Pro Dead­lift cat­e­go­ry. Each year they chose five lifters from dif­fer­ent parts of the world to com­pete on this stage. I was in­vit­ed in 2012 and a few days af­ter ar­riv­ing at the Arnold Sports Fes­ti­val, I met one of the or­gan­is­ers, Brad Gilling­ham, a world cham­pi­on and hall of famer and world record hold­er.

He said to me that af­ter­noon that they were look­ing for peo­ple to be in­vit­ed to the event and, for some rea­son, my name stood out in his head and when he men­tioned it, all the or­gan­is­ers agreed. He then said, "Car­los, I am ho­n­oured to have you at this event."

Up­com­ing events?

I am fo­cused on the Rio 2016 Par­a­lympic Games. Be­fore that, I may par­tic­i­pate at the world Track and Field Par­a­lympic Games in Oc­to­ber, and oth­er cham­pi­onships, yet to be de­cid­ed, that would build up to Rio 2016.

What ad­vice would you give to as­pir­ing ath­letes?

Be fo­cused, de­ter­mined, per­se­vere, and fol­low your dreams. Life as an ath­lete is not easy but once we are de­ter­mined to make it, sport has the abil­i­ty to trans­form a sim­ple per­son in­to a leg­end, with lots of re­ward­ing mo­ments.

What goals and/or plans do you still have?

Some of the goals that I still have are to see a sta­di­um built in my area (maybe with my name on it), be­com­ing a full-time mo­ti­va­tion­al speak­er, and run­ning pro­grammes in schools and cor­rec­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions for young peo­ple.

De­scribe your­self in two words, one be­gin­ning with C, the oth­er with G, your ini­tials.

The two words that will eas­i­ly char­ac­terise me us­ing my ini­tials are Coura­geous and Gift­ed...if I may say so! (Laugh­ing).

NOTE: The T&T Blind Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion, of which Greene is a coun­cil mem­ber, re­cent­ly launched its 100th year (1914-2014) com­mem­o­ra­tive pub­li­ca­tion. In it, Greene's suc­cess sto­ry is high­light­ed.