Wojtek Czyz is a successful athlete with a ten years long international career in the field of disabled sports. Winner of four gold medals, one silver and two bronzes over three Paralympic Games, he had the opportunity to meet disabled people all around the world gaining a clear idea about the behavior towards disability in countries like Ukraine, Kenya, India and Thailand.

The acceptance of disability and the quality of prosthetic assistance is remarkably different all over the world: disabled people are in fact often stigmatized as “Lame“ and there is a big lack of support, comprehension and professionalism in handling disability. Parents themselves are ashamed of their own children, since they are, presumably, not able to be productive for the family general health. These people are outsiders and they have no prospective.

Despite this, the presence of an athlete like Wojtek on spot and the work with these families has spotlighted the opportunity of a positive changing.

His results and success showed to the families how much disabled people could be fundamental components in the social life

Handicapped people are able to do great things when they are given the opportunities and the conditions to.

As a consequence of this experience and in quality of multiple Paralympic Champion, it has raised in Wojtek the decision to sail over the world together with his wife Elena Brambilla, an athlete herself, to help people in building up, deal with and maintain prosthetics.

In this optic the two, together with further members, have established a foundation, Sailing4handicaps, which target is to give to disable people all over the world a new opportunity of life. Sailing4handicaps will perform a circumnavigation on board of the catamaran „Imagine“ bringing on site a specialized crew, prosthetic forniture, medical assistance, support and knowledge about the use of prosthetics and the abilities of disables, trying to open in this way new prospective for all these people and their families.

Xquisite Yachts and Phoenix Marine Manufacturing joined forces to support Sailing4handicaps, as the new Xquisite X5 built by Phoenix Marine offers the perfect platform for Wojtek & Elena to sail around the world safely and be able to build prosthetics on board at the same time

We’re grateful for this unique opportunity being able to be part of this amazing project, knowing that the very first hull of our new X5 series is sailing the oceans for a great cause!

For further information click here and visit the Sailing4handicaps website.

Sailing4handicaps Gallery