In 2021, to Emiliano Pinson They were diagnosed Parkinson’s. Far from giving up on her, the 52-year-old sports journalist decided to fight her. Last April, however, he was told her diagnosis changed. “I have a atypical parkinson, that means that it is not rigid Parkinson’s as it was originally diagnosed. It is one that is not well studied and its development varies. It is not like the rigid one who has a shaky demeanor and is operable. My problem is in the cerebellumthat is cannot be operated, because you can’t get there,” he explained. In the midst of his brave fight, this Sunday, won a Martín Fierro de la Radio award for best sports commentator and received the biggest ovation of the night in the Ocre Hall of La Rural.
“Three and a half years ago I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. I was very afraid to say it, I didn’t feel encouraged, I was ashamed, and yet, there were people from the radio who told me: ‘We want you on a program in the morning,’” he noted with gratitude. And he continued: “It’s not easy to let them tie your shoelaces or cut your food. At first I was ashamed, but then I understood that my life had to be like this”. In the same sense, he assured that “you don’t get out of Parkinson’s alone, you get out with people, with friends, with listeners, with viewers, with the strength they give me I move forward.”
“I am not brave, I want to live, that is why I move forward, because the past is something that I cannot fix, the future does not depend on me but on the now, and my now is to be a happy guy. I’m sick, I’m a happy guy and I’m moving forward. This is what I ask of all of you, to think about today, not so much about what happened and say: ‘I love you’, because love heals,” she said.
His words had a deep impact on the night that awarded AM and FM. So much so that, when he came off the stage, several colleagues came up to greet him; among them, the journalist Sofia Martinez, with whom Emiliano shared the list for Sports Commentator. “I lost my shortlist, but the great Emi Pinsón won it“, celebrated the member of Street Dogs (Urban Play).
Emiliano is 52 years old and is the father of Joaquin, Valentine and Victory. Almost three and a half years ago, after having a series of episodes and undergoing medical tests, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. In July 2022 he told it publicly and surprised the audience. After his second diagnosis, in April 2024, the journalist gave an extensive report to Infobaein which he talked about the impact of this news on his life.
“I never asked myself why me. She had once heard that there were many people who, when faced with these situations, asked themselves: ‘Why me?’ She touched me. The origin of the disease is not known. Not just mine, but that of the disease in general. There is a small percentage that it is generic, hereditary, but there is a 70% that does not know the origin. When they gave me the second diagnosis, I received it with a lot of pain. Like when your throat hurts because you even scream. I was organized, we were doing well. “Parkinson’s has the first five years that are called the honeymoon because you don’t have as much pain, then the second five years of the disease you have some more problems, but everything goes very gradually,” he told Leo Montero.
And followed: “Before, when I was younger, I was afraid of death, of the unknown.. But now, not because it will happen soon, but at least I already know what is going to happen to me, we all know what is going to happen to us, but there is a moment when you feel immortal and you don’t care about anything. Now I realize that I am mortal and I don’t experience it as crazy either, it took weight off me. I learned to value life from another place because before I maybe prioritized money and now I realize that it is important, but it is not the most important thing.”.
Long before making his diagnosis public, Emiliano had a conversation with his three children and told them what was happening with his health. According to him, this support was and continues to be essential in his daily life to continue fighting against a disease that, although slowly, is advancing.
Even in the middle of this process, the journalist, who was separated from the mother of his children, at the end of 2023 surprisingly fell in love with Laura Garces. “We met as children and met again as adults through Instagram. We started sending each other a couple of messages, but not to see each other but to talk nonsense. And at the end of last year we wrote to each other and we decided to see each other after 30-something, 40 years,” Pinsón said. “Beyond the fact that I fell in love with who she is as a woman, she takes care of me and protects me a lot.”, he added.
Added to the love of the family is that of those known and not so known. “The love I received during this time is impressive, the energy that the followers of my social networks transmit to me. I didn’t imagine this. They send you strength in their messages. I also received signs of affection from many sports journalists and players with whom I get along well, but I am not friends. They have written to me, for example, Oscar Cordoba, Erik Lamela, players with whom I don’t have much of a relationship, other players perhaps not as well known, but always very polite: ‘Go ahead, put it in.’ Former players like him Coconut Capria and Fernando Quiroz; and some tennis players, like Nicolas Lapentti”, he highlighted.
About his daily life, Pinzón told how he faces pain and why he always tries to look forward. “I do exercises to stretch. But then it happens like in the movie Like it was the first time, by Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, where he has to romance her every day. There are days when I go out and say: ‘How good I am’ and the next day I do the same thing and everything hurts. It’s day by day, but I’m happy despite Parkinson’s. I know you lose the fight. It is inexorable, but I will do as Chuck Wepnerthe boxer who stood up to Muhammad Ali, which for many was the spirit of Rocky or Stallone. The guy said: ‘I want to last the 15 rounds’ and I’m going to fight until the 12th, because now there are fewer rounds. My head works for me and I am very optimistic, I always was; Therefore, they won’t be able to get me out of there. If I let up there, if I dwell on the pain, I fall. So, you always have to look forward. Sometimes it is better not to be so smart or overthink things and move forward. What happened has no solution,” she said.
And he closed: “If I had to define myself in a single word, I would say that I am a resilient. What I wish is that tomorrow my children say: ‘My old man fought her and banked her’. And let that serve them in life, for them, in any order of life, let them fight it.”
