Talk about revenge… A little over three years ago, before the Tokyo Paralympic Games, Man-Kei To had to throw in the towel at the end of the race, just a few cables away from the final selection, blocked “by one or two places”, “because in para-badminton, we favoured those who played doubles and I didn’t have a partner of the same nationality as me”, says the woman who has since won a vice-world champion title and another vice-European champion title with Turkey’s Emine Seçkin. But this year, at almost 38 years old, it was she who had the honour of being the first to officially obtain the green light from the Belgian Paralympic Committee (BPC) for Paris, on 3 May, from where she intends to bring home a medal. A nice reward after an excellent start in the qualification period that began in January 2023. “After six months, I was almost sure I would have my ticket in singles,” she says without false modesty. Before adding: “But I admit that I was a bit lucky because at the beginning of the journey, the Chinese women, still stuck at home because of covid, were not there on the circuit…”
Beyond this stroke of luck, the woman whom everyone around her calls Kiki has above all benefited from the radical decision – “the best of my life” – that she made in 2019 to devote herself full-time to her sport, which now takes up 25 hours a week thanks to the support of her federation, the Flemish disabled sports league (G-Sport Vlaanderen) and her club, the Badminton Club Herne (Hérinnes), which opened her eyes when she entered in 2013, six years after this accident that changed her destiny.
Wrong place at the wrong time
“That evening in 2007, we were out in Antwerp with two of my sisters and my boyfriend at the time,” she says. “At a crossroads, a car came speeding from our right and crashed into our vehicle, unfortunately where I was sitting. I was the one who took the brunt of the shock caused by a speeding driver who had drunk too much. I can still hear him, after getting out of his vehicle, asking us not to call the police… I had remained conscious and I immediately saw that I could no longer move my legs, in which I felt tingling, or stand up. I was a physiotherapy student; I immediately understood that this was not good…”
After five months in hospital, first in Antwerp, then in Ghent, during which she had long hoped that it was “only” a spinal shock, and that a long rehabilitation work could perhaps save her, Man-Kei To had to face the inevitable. The spinal cord was affected at the level of the T12 vertebra and she was now paralysed from the legs down. “The fact that I believed it for a few weeks probably allowed me to better cope with the trauma”, she admits with impressive courage.
Although she was born in Belgium, her roots lie in Hong Kong. It was from there that her parents, originally farmers, came to Europe in 1982, first to the Netherlands, then to Belgium to try their luck in the restaurant business, believing that this was where their future lay. “They first settled in West Flanders, near Kortrijk, before moving to Ninove to open a restaurant in which my sisters and I helped out a lot! They have been retired since 2016. They live here, in the same building as me.”
Man-Kei To says that her accident in 2007 never dampened her desire to play sports, that she just had to think “differently” from then on. “Until then, I played tennis and that was the sport I naturally gravitated towards first. But when I started doing some research on the internet, I came across the Herne badminton club, located not too far from Ninove, which had a Paralympic section. It was also a racket sport and I still had a “feel for the ball”. After being really well received there, I started playing more and more until I became a real pro today, with badminton training, but also cardio and weight training!”
Even though it is played on a quarter of a normal court, with a chair that can cost up to 10,000 euros, similar to the one used in tennis, which allows great mobility and prevents tipping over, para-badminton is, according to her, far from being as easy as one might think. “I had this idea when I started, I quickly became disillusioned! It’s a very intensive sport, where you have to combine technique, tactics, physical condition and mental strength,” she jokes, acknowledging that she is probably too much of a perfectionist. “I absolutely want to score good points, even though it’s not always necessary!”
To satisfy her passion, as has been said, she ended up giving up the job she had landed in the medical department of a large American firm after completing studies in optics and optometry, which she had fallen back on. “I competed in my first international competition in 2015, initially without much ambition. But I quickly realized that I really liked it, which encouraged me to bet everything on sport from 2019. Since then, I have never stopped progressing.”
Training partners are hard to find
Her choice, she says, was not too difficult to make. “We live in a country where social security is excellent and my situation allowed me to benefit from financial aid anyway. But I was well helped by my two federations and the BPC also supports me during the Olympic years. My club offers me unlimited access to its gym and I benefit from a budget for equipment from my equipment supplier. Finally, I will soon be part of a group of 13 international Paralympic athletes sponsored by a major insurance company.”
Her status as a “star” in her discipline, which has grown over the years since her first international victory in 2023 in a “level 1” tournament in Brazil and which she completed with a European title in 2023 and a world bronze medal in singles in 2024, makes her an exception in Belgium where she has no equivalent in hitting the shuttlecock. “So, it’s my coaches who sit in a chair when we work!”
The need to go abroad regularly is therefore obvious, whether to play tournaments – “At least one per month” – or to go and train, mainly in Asia where badminton is one of the most popular disciplines, even among the disabled. “Over time, I have learned to know everyone, or almost everyone, and to make friends with most of my opponents. I sometimes think that I might have a problem when I absolutely have to beat them… It’s something I’m going to have to work on with a shrink!”
BELGIAN.
ID CARD
Birth. Ninove, August 25, 1986.
Size weight. 1,60 m, 47 kg.
Residence. Ninove.
Discipline. Para-badminton.
Club. BC Herne.
Coaches. The book is about the work of Arno Boomants, Sven De Rom and Rafael van der Wel.
Paralympic past. /
2024-07-05 14:27:58
#Paralympic #Games #ManKei #chair #truth
