Chilean paralympian gets her own Barbie as doll-maker diversifies

SANTIAGO, Aug 26 (Reuters) – A wheelchair-bound Chilean paralympian who set a 2019 world file for shotputting has turn into the most recent topic of a Barbie created by American toy agency Mattel , as a part of the corporate’s intention to diversify the product line of its well-known doll.

Francisca Mardones, 43, was the standard-bearer of the Chilean crew taking part within the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. She has represented her nation in wheelchair tennis and, latterly, shotputting, discus throwing and javelin.

Mardones nursed an ambition to be an Olympic athlete from childhood, however was left with spinal injury after being injured in a landslide throughout a hurricane which struck the Puerto Rican island the place she was working in 1999.

She stated she hoped her Barbie would spotlight to youngsters that incapacity mustn’t stand in the best way of their objectives.

“It is a recognition of all of the years of sacrifice I made for sports activities and the outcomes of that,” she stated.

“On the finish of the day, what Mattel needs to spotlight is just not my incapacity, however my sporting achievements, and which means loads.”

Mardones stated the toy agency was meticulous about element, asking for items of her wardrobe to create the prototype and for permission from her sponsors to recreate their logos.

“They might have depicted me extra in my tennis enjoying period, and maybe a number of kilos lighter,” the athlete grinned.

The doll is a part of the corporate’s ‘Sheroes’ product line, created in 2015 to acknowledge exemplary feminine figures.

Earlier this month, Mattel a Barbie model of British coronavirus vaccine developer Sarah Gilbert, as a part of a variety depicting girls who fought COVID-19.

Reporting by Reuters Tv, written by Fabian Cambero and Aislinn Laing, Enhancing by Rosalba O’Brien

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