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译文仅供参考，中文在上，对照英文在下。
我梦想成为一名职业橄榄球运动员，但是16岁时受的伤让我的梦想破碎了。医生告诉我，我能再次走路就很幸运了，更不用说从事运动了。
I had dreams of becoming a professional rugby player but they were shattered by an injury when I was 16. The doctors said I’d be lucky to walk again, never mind play sport.
那是7年前的事，现在回头看看，这其实是件好事，因为它迫使我开始关注非身体接触类的运动。受伤一年多后，离我18岁生日还有1个月的时候，我成了英国花式足球冠军（右图为本文口述者安德鲁•亨德森在展示他的花式足球技巧）。当时我还在学习高中A-level课程。
That was seven years ago and, looking back now, it was actually a good thing because it forced me to focus on a non-contact sport. Just over a year later, a month before my 18th birthday and in the middle of my A-levels, I became the UK freestyle football champion.
花式足球糅合了足球控球技巧、杂技表演和舞蹈动作，并且富于自我表现。开始时，我还以为花式足球不可能成为一项正经的职业，部分原因在于我自认为练得不够好。我记得当时我在网上学习荷兰花式足球先驱Soufiane Touzani的视频——我试着找出那条绳子，我不敢相信这些动作是真的。
Freestyle football combines the technical side of ball control with acrobatics, dance moves and self-expression. At the beginning I didn’t even think freestyling could be a serious career, partly because I thought I wasn’t good enough. I remember studying online videos of Dutch pioneer Soufiane Touzani — I was trying to see the string. I couldn’t believe it was real.
5年来，这项运动如雨后春笋般迅速流行开来，我与莱昂内尔•梅西(Lionel Messi)和内马尔(Neymar)一起拍过广告，与大卫•贝克汉姆(David Beckham)一起出席活动。我还在伦敦奥运会和里约足球世界杯上表演过花式足球。
The sport’s popularity has mushroomed over the past five years and I’ve shot adverts with Lionel Messi and Neymar and done events with David Beckham. I also performed at the London Olympics and last year’s World Cup in Rio.
我对运动的热爱，是受到我的父亲罗伯特(Robert)的感染。他是英国大学柔道冠军，是个运动狂人。我在康沃尔(Cornwall)西部长大，孩提时他带我走遍了全国各地。我练过乒乓球、足球和橄榄球，后来把全副精力放在了橄榄球上。我是一名动作敏捷的争球前卫，到我受伤时，我已经踢了差不多十年的橄榄球。
It was my dad, Robert, who infected me with an obsessive enthusiasm for sports. He was British Universities judo champion and sport mad. When I was a child growing up in west Cornwall, he ferried me all around the country as I played table tennis, football and rugby — the sport I eventually concentrated my efforts on. I was a nippy scrum-half and when my injury happened I’d been playing the game for about a decade.
我是在一次杯赛中受伤的，当时我情绪激昂。我沿着边线疾跑，之后突然折身向内冲，左脚却陷在浸水的场地上。
It was during a cup match and I was so fired up. I hared down the line and jinked inside, planting my left foot on the waterlogged pitch.
我感觉腿扭了一下，随后被阻挡球员牢牢压住。我的腿骨折了，脚踝脱臼了，胫骨和腓骨断了，所以当我的骨头啪啪作响时——声音很大——连续响了5次。大家看到我的腿垂着、脚扭向反方向时，都恶心坏了，在球场上干呕起来。
I felt my leg twist before being nailed by tacklers. It was a fracture break, so when it snapped — and it was loud — it dislocated my ankle and broke my tibia and fibula, five times through the bone. People were so grossed-out at the sight of my leg hanging, and my foot facing the wrong way, they were sick on the pitch.
受伤时我没有哭，做了好几个手术，几周后医生们认为我康复前景不理想，我失声痛哭起来。运动一直是我生活中的重心。那是改变我一生的时刻，也是我人生中的低谷。
I didn’t cry when it happened but weeks later, after various operations and when the medics had voiced their woeful prognosis, I wept uncontrollably. Sport had always been central to my life. It was a life-altering moment, and the lowest I’ve ever been.
但是那次受伤让我长大了，我也随之改变了目标。在复健过程中，我练习了一些花式足球的动作——学着控制球的平衡，尽管我还打着石膏。这有助于我康复，让我有事可做。不过理疗师可不建议这么做！
But the injury made me grow up and reconfigure my goals. Throughout my recovery I was doing a few freestyle football moves — learning to balance the ball, even in my cast. It helped me with rehab. It gave me something to work on. The physios certainly weren’t recommending it, though!
在那段黑暗的日子里，身体和精神上的痛苦激励着我尽力做到最好。我到现在已经连续四次夺得世界冠军。还不坏，毕竟我的腿里有一块大钢板和9枚钢钉。我的肩膀里另有一块大钢板和9枚钢钉——拜我刚开始练习时一次技巧失误所赐。在停车场的大梁上掉下后，我的胳膊和肩膀摔断了。但我没有因这次受伤而畏缩不前；在腿断之后我知道不会有比那更疼的了。我希望自己的态度能激励那些经历了类似挫折的孩子们。
It’s the physical and mental pain I felt in those dark days that motivates me to be the best I can be. I’m now the reigning world champion, having won four times on the trot. Not bad considering I have a large metal plate and nine screws in my leg. I’ve got another large metal plate and nine more screws in my shoulder — the last lot arriving thanks to a trick that went wrong when I was starting out. I broke my arm and shoulder after falling from a girder in a car park. I didn’t let it deter me, though; after breaking my leg I knew the pain couldn’t be worse. I hope my attitude will prove inspirational to kids who suffer similar setbacks.
我每天训练10个小时，坚持精心制定的营养计划，以使体内脂肪比例维持在5%左右。我还会做几个小时的瑜伽和其他一些柔韧性训练，我的腿比以前任何时候都强壮。但是我也需要不断发明新技巧以保持领先。讽刺的是，这正是我的初恋橄榄球能派上用场的地方。我对花式规则进行了略微调整，用椭圆形的橄榄球取代足球，并且在比赛中进行表演，试着向新观众介绍花式表演。但愿我今年能在橄榄球世界杯(Rugby World Cup)上，在特威克纳姆(Twickenham)橄榄球场内表演。
I train for 10 hours a day and adhere to a careful nutrition plan that means I have about 5 per cent body fat. I do hours of yoga and other flexibility exercises, and my leg has never felt stronger. But I also need to keep inventing new skills to stay ahead of the pack. Ironically, this is where rugby, my first love, is helping. I’ve been fine-tuning a freestyle set that uses an oval rugby ball as opposed to a football and I’ve performed it at matches, trying to introduce freestyle to a new audience. Hopefully I’ll be performing inside Twickenham rugby stadium later this year during the Rugby World Cup.
