‘When I ride, I feel like a bird in the sky’: A medical error confined Nemanja to a wheelchair, and today he flies in it like a bird
Nemanja Radičević (30) from Kraljevo did not have a childhood like other children, as he was born with a spinal deformity. While his peers were playing, he spent his days in hospital, fighting to get on his feet! He succeeded, but a medical error confined him to a wheelchair when he was eight years old.
Despite this, this young man is proof that dreams can come true. Today, he is the only WCMX — wheelchair motocross — rider in Serbia and the Balkans. Nemanja first encountered this sport 15 years ago, entirely by chance, and it was, as he told us, love at first sight. It is an extreme sport in which competitors in wheelchairs perform tricks on ramps and tracks, similar to skateboarding or BMX.
“I was born with a spinal deformity; the diagnosis is spina bifida. I was born without the L4 vertebra, and that is why I cannot walk. In general, until the age of eight, my life revolved around operations, rehabilitation spas and recovery. I spent very little time at school or outside with my friends. I had many successful operations, and the doctors performed them very well. At the age of four and a half, I was walking with two braces, underarm crutches and a corset that supported my spine and pelvic area,” this cheerful young man tells Kurir.
Fateful operation
Over time, he made progress, and by the age of six he was walking independently with the help of forearm crutches.
“I wore braces that extended above my knees. I continued exercising. During my final operation, a doctor who was not even supposed to operate on me made a mistake involving my spine and undid all the previous operations and all my hard work, putting me back in a wheelchair,” he says.
After that, his parents decided to give up on further operations and allow him to be a child.
“I started school, and the other children did not want to spend time with me... That was when I encountered discrimination, rejection by society and the first major struggles of my life. When you are that young, you have to fight for your place on your own,” Nemanja points out.
He says that he has always had a restless spirit.
“I was a real little livewire, always on the go and full of energy, and that was how I moved through life as well. I discovered WCM entirely by chance. I was listening to a song on YouTube, and there was a picture at the side. I saw an unusual-looking wheelchair and clicked on it to see what it was about. There was a man who had started the sport, and I fell in love with WCMX at first sight,” he recalls:
“I used to ride around in a battered wheelchair, but even before that I was always fooling around, messing about, getting other people to pull me along with their bicycles and going downhill. It had always been inside me, but that was when it all took shape.”
Competed at the world championships twice
Nemanja has competed at the world championships twice, in Cologne and, last year, in Switzerland.
“In Cologne, I injured the ligaments in my shoulder the day before the qualifiers, while in Switzerland I finished ninth. The hardest thing for me is the struggle behind the wheel; I rarely ride in skateparks because there are not many of them in our country. Usually, once every five or six months, when my parents are able to arrange it, I go to skateparks. Because I have not had the opportunity to use them, I have set myself the goal of becoming one of the more serious street riders, performing various tricks, jumping down huge flights of steps, over railings... They are tricks like those performed on bicycles, only adapted for a wheelchair,” our interviewee says.
The greatest release
He did not have a specialised wheelchair that would allow him to take part in this extreme sport.
“The wheelchair cost a great deal, and that kind of money was unimaginable for us. It all began with a YouTube video of me riding in my wheelchair, which my uncle persuaded me to upload. The video was seen by Rok Skele, the owner of a board shop, who contacted my mother and me. He organised a charity party in Belgrade, paid the remainder of the money that was needed and bought me my first wheelchair. After that, I became more seriously involved in the sport,” he says gratefully.
His parents were afraid and tried to dissuade him from the idea.
“When I do it, I feel like a bird in the sky. I love it very much, and over time they began to get used to it. For me, this sport is a way to express myself and to show people that a wheelchair does not have to be a burden, but can instead be seen as a toy and the greatest release in life,” he tells us.