Starting towards their dreams, they use their unyielding strength to bloom brilliantly
Contests in the dark, competitions in wheelchairs, breakthroughs in self-limits…their lives are even more admirable
▲Shi Yijie, an athlete of the Chinese blind judo team and a player from Hunan, is training.Xinhua News Agency photo
▲Hunan player Wen Xiaoyan won the gold medal in the women’s long jump T37/38 final.
Photo by Huasheng Online all-media reporter Li Jian
Chinese player Zhou Hongzhuan competes in the women’s 400m T53 final.Xinhua News Agency photo
Hunan player Shi Yiting won the gold medal in the women’s 200m T36 final.
Photo by Huasheng Online all-media reporter Li Jian
In the women’s wheelchair basketball competition, the Chinese team (in red) and the Japanese team are competing fiercely.
Photo by Huasheng Online all-media reporter Li Jian
Chinese player Yang Hong won the gold medal in the men’s 200m individual medley SM6 final and broke the world record.
Xinhua News Agency photo
The Asian Para Games is the largest comprehensive sports event for people with disabilities in Asia. As of October 27, the night before the closing ceremony of the 4th Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, the Chinese delegation had won 196 gold medals and 159 silver medals. A score of 138 bronze.
The Xiang girls who ran at world speeds, the judokas who competed in the dark, the athletes who struggled in wheelchairs… During the competition, disabled athletes showed their superb competitive level and unyielding spiritual quality. We not only witnessed their Courage and perseverance, I felt their strong power to overcome difficulties and pursue their dreams, and I also saw the dedication of those “behind-the-scenes heroes”. The silent dedication of the leaders, riders, and guides is also worthy of applause.
■Comprehensive summary by Huasheng Online all-media trainee reporter Gao Yuqi and correspondent Zhang Ziyi
Two Hunan girls run at world speed
In sports, every improvement in performance requires thousands of days and nights of hard work, especially for athletes with disabilities. At the Asian Paralympic Games in Hangzhou, two Hunan girls broke world records on the field and won honors for Hunan.
Shi Yiting: Go all out to pursue your dreams and break your own records
In sprint competition, every 0.01 second improvement in the world record is like reaching the sky. So how is it possible to advance 0.04 seconds?
On October 23, in the women’s 200m T36 final of the track and field event at the 4th Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, Hunan Guiyang athlete Shi Yiting won the championship with a time of 28.17 seconds, breaking her previous record of 28.21 seconds. set a world record and won Hunan’s first gold medal at the Asian Para Games.
Shi Yiting was born in Guiyang County in 1997. Due to hypoxia when she was young, she suffered muscle atrophy in her left upper limb and is classified as a fourth-level physical disability. But she has been sunny and cheerful since she was a child, and has excellent athletic talent. In March 2010, Guiyang County held a county-wide sports meeting for primary and secondary school students, and Shi Yiting “first showed her talents.” “Yiting was very small at the time, but she could jump over 1.1 meters in the high jump. I found that her leg strength was better.” The 12-year-old Xiao Yiting was spotted by Wang Fangshu, the coach of Guiyang No. 3 Middle School.
After that, Shi Yiting embarked on a “new track” in life and officially became an athlete. Her physical limitations required her to put in far more sweat and hardship than ordinary people. “At the beginning of Yiting’s training, one leg would always hurt after running due to physical reasons. I asked her to take a rest, but she always said she could still persist.” Enlightenment coach Wang Fangshu recalled.
The hard work paid off. Shi Yiting has won more than 30 gold medals and broken world records five times. She went all out to pursue her dreams and kept running.
Wen Xiaoyan: Breaking the world record three times in three days and becoming a better version of herself
On October 26, at the track and field venue of the Asian Paralympic Games in Hangzhou, in the women’s 100m T37 final, athlete Wen Xiaoyan from Yiyang, Hunan also broke the world record and won the gold medal with a time of 12.59 seconds. This is the third time she has broken the world record at the Asian Para Games.
After the game, reporters asked, “Have you reached the limit of sports by breaking the world record three times in three days?” Wen Xiaoyan was very confident, “There is still room for improvement. I will keep working hard and continue to surpass it at the Paris Paralympics.”
Previously, on October 24, Wen Xiaoyan jumped 5.45 meters in the women’s long jump T37/38 final, breaking the world record of 5.33 meters she set in July this year; on October 25, the women’s 200 meters T37 In the class final, she clocked 26.18 seconds, breaking the world record of 26.42 seconds set by a Colombian athlete in July this year.
Wen Xiaoyan constantly challenges herself in order to become a better self. “Now I am just comparing myself with myself. Even if I am ranked number one in the world, my results can still be better.” Wen Xiaoyan said that her goal is to become a strong person and use her actions to prove that disability People can also work hard and achieve many things.
light grows in darkness
They are blind judokas. In the darkness, they groped and walked with their hands on each other’s shoulders. During the battle between the two, they suddenly emerged and won with one move. At this Asian Paralympic Games, in the blind judo event, representatives of Changsha disabled athletes won a total of 3 gold medals and 1 bronze medal.
Shi Yijie: a post-00s girl who strives for excellence
On October 23, on the first day of the blind judo competition of the 4th Asian Paralympic Games in Hangzhou, amidst the enthusiastic applause and cheers of the audience, Shi Yijie, a “post-00s” athlete from Changsha, stood on the championship podium. This was also Changsha’s first Gold medal.
In July 2000, Shi Yijie was born in Yongxing County, Chenzhou City, Hunan Province. When she was 10 years old, she developed retinal problems and gradually lost her vision. In September 2013, Shi Yijie was selected by senior blind judo coach Li Yuehua to join the Changsha Blind Judo Team and began her career as a professional athlete.
“This kid is very hard-working in training and can’t even get out of the firing line even with minor injuries.” On October 24, Shi Yijie’s coach, senior judo coach and international judo referee Li Yuehua, said in an interview with a reporter from Sanxiang Metropolis Daily that Shi Yijie has to train 6 times a day. hours, and they all trained with the male team members. Li Yuehua showed reporters images of Shi Yijie’s daily training. Even though her training clothes were soaked with sweat, Shi Yijie still strived for excellence in every movement and practiced repeatedly.
Sweat and tears have paid off for Shi Yijie, who has successively won the gold medal in the 63kg category of blind judo women at the 10th National Games for Persons with Disabilities in 2019 and the gold medal in the 57kg category for blind women in judo at the 11th National Games for Persons with Disabilities in 2021. In 2023, she was in excellent condition and won the first place in the 57kg J1 class at the 2023 Azerbaijan World Blind Judo Grand Prix, the first place in the 57kg J1 class at the 2023 British World Blind Games, and the 57kg class at the 2023 Egypt World Blind Judo Grand Prix. First place in the J1 class, first place in the 57kg class (J1 and J2 combined) in the 2023 National Blind Judo Championships, and has been on the podium of world-class events many times.
Liu Li: Fighting through injuries to win the gold medal
On October 24, on the second day of the judo competition at the Hangzhou Asian Para Games, Liu Li, a player from Changsha, won the gold medal in the women’s 70kg J1 final.
After the game, she was very upset about the points she lost in the game, “I regret it very much for underestimating the enemy and giving away a point. This kind of thing will never happen again in the future. It is too dangerous to win like this.”
In fact, this loss of points was related to Liu Li’s hand injury. She tore ligaments in her left hand during the Azerbaijan World Blind Judo Grand Prix. In order to prepare for the Asian Para Games, she refused the doctor’s request for a “cast”. When asked how he dealt with physical pain, Liu Li replied with a smile: “I can still bear it.”
Despite his injuries, Liu Li still stood on the highest podium of the Asian Para Games. “What you think is the winning opportunity and every action we take are actually not accidental to us, but muscle memory formed after repeated training.”
“This gold medal is the highest point I can reach so far, but it is also a new starting point.” Liu Li said.
Life in a wheelchair
Badminton, basketball, fencing… none of these words seem to have anything to do with “wheelchair”, but at the Paralympic Games, wheelchairs are not an obstacle to the athletes’ hard work on the field, but a testimony of their efforts and sweat.
Yin Menglu: I can’t give up every ball
Disabled badminton competitions are divided into six levels according to the degree of disability, and the wheelchair group has the highest degree of disability.
The girl in the wheelchair is determined, confident, and responsive. The badminton flies freely when she swings the racket. She is Yin Menglu, a farm girl from Xiguan Village, Guangping County.
Yin Menglu was severely disabled in both lower limbs due to congenital spina bifida. But her disabled body did not make this self-reliant girl give up on herself. In 2014, Yin Menglu started wheelchair badminton training. Successfully entered the Hebei Provincial Team in 2016. No one knows how much sweat she shed on the training ground because of her tenacity.
Hard work paid off. At the National Paralympic Games in May 2019, Yin Menglu won the WH1 badminton women’s wheelchair singles championship and finally entered the national team as she wished.
On October 24, Yin Menglu played against South Korean player Jeon Hyun Ah in the 3rd match of the women’s singles WH1 preliminaries – Group B and advanced with a score of 2-0. During the game, there was an episode. During a certain swing, Yin Menglu’s racket broke. “I thought at that time that I must not give up the ball. Even though the racket was broken, I still had to hit the ball.” Recalling this episode, Yin Menglu’s mentality was very stable.
On October 26, the badminton women’s singles WH1 final was held at the Binjiang Gymnasium, and Yin Menglu won the bronze medal.
Sun Gang: Fencing changed my life
“I didn’t expect to be the flag bearer at the opening ceremony. This is something worth remembering for a lifetime.” Since he came into contact with wheelchair fencing in 2009, 31-year-old Sun Gang has been filled with fencing for 14 years in his life. “When I was a child, I was very naughty because My legs are not good, and my family is very worried about my future. It was fencing that changed my life.”
Sun Gang was born in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province. Although he has been disabled in one lower limb due to the sequelae of childhood anesthesia since childhood, he loves sports, especially table tennis and basketball. His cousin Rong Jing is an athlete on the national wheelchair fencing team. With her introduction, he got the opportunity to try out for the Jiangsu Provincial Wheelchair Fencing Team and was favored by the coach. He once expressed the role of “inheritance” to the media, “At that time, I saw my cousin standing on the podium of international competitions, and I felt an uncontrollable excitement in my heart. I thought that I would be able to stand there someday. It’ll be fine up there.”
At the 2014 Incheon Asian Para Games, Sun Gang realized his desire to stand on the podium of international competitions for the first time. He won three championships in men’s foil team, epee team, and A-level foil individual, as well as the A-level Epee individual runner-up. Since then, the honor has become his motivation to persist in training, constantly pushing him to a higher podium and winning multiple Paralympic gold medals.
On October 25, in the men’s individual foil foil A-level gold medal match at the Hangzhou Asian Para Games, the Chinese team won the gold, silver and bronze medals, and Sun Gang won the bronze medal in this event.
On October 26, in the men’s foil team gold medal match of wheelchair fencing, the Chinese team consisting of Sun Gang, Feng Yanke, Cheng Yang, and Zhong Saichun defeated the Iraqi team 45-26 and won the championship.
(First trial: Liu Le; Second trial: Wang Yaqi; Third trial: Yu Zhenhua)
2023-10-29 00:48:27
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