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Meet Adaptive Athlete: ALBERTO VALDES

 

 

Alberto Valdes

 

DOB: August 3rd, 1998

DOI: March 2020

Injury: T12 Spinal Cord Injury

22 Alberto Valdes Headshot

Alberto was born in Monterrey, Mexico and lived there until the age of 12, when his family moved to Austin, Texas for educational opportunities. He began practicing Taekwondo at the age of three and was a black belt by middle school. Along with that, Alberto also did rugby in high school and studied abroad for a year in France. After high school, he attended SMU in Dallas.

 

While on spring break vacation in 2020, Alberto fell off a third story balcony and hit the ground with his head and back. Doctors performed an emergency craniotomy and spinal fusion to his lower back, along with a spinal fusion in his neck days later. He spent ten days in a medically induced coma before regaining consciousness.

 

Since then, Alberto has been working hard to gain back strength, function, and mobility. He’s been putting in the work and excited to continue his progress within the ReDefine program. Throughout the nine weeks, he hopes to make huge physical gains, but also really focus on meditation and breath work. His next big goal is to walk across the stage at his graduation ceremony.

 
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