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To celebrate International Day of Persons with Disabilities, discover the stories of five athletes who competed in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games and how practicing parasport changed their lives.
Italy Veronica Plebani says Parasport helped her gain self-confidence after she contracted meningitis at the age of 15.
“It was difficult to deal with such a major transformation in my life as a teenager. The hardest part in the beginning was seeing myself in such a transformed body and learning to live with a disability, relearning many of the things I struggled with.
“The hardest part was getting used to not comparing myself to the Veronica I knew before and to the things I knew how to do before,” Plebani said.
With her love for sports, participating in the Paralympic Games seemed like a calling. She has participated in three para sports: Para snowboard, ParacanoeAnd Para-triathlon – at the Paralympic Games.
“Sports, it was something very important for me to understand how to live again. When I started exercising, I understood that my body could still do great things, and that was so important for my self-confidence.”
Outside of sports, she posed for the cover of Vogue magazine in Italy. She has written a novel based on her recovery time in hospital. On social media she emphasizes the importance of being positive and confident.
“I wish all the girls out there, perhaps struggling with their bodies and their disabilities, to find a place where you can learn a lot about yourself and what you like.
“You can grow in that place, from there you can start to grow. You can do great things.”
Growing up with a passion for sports, Markus Rehm thought he lost his sense of identity after losing his right leg in a wakeboarding accident. Now a five-time Paralympic champion, Rehm says parasport has helped him reclaim his identity.
“I was always the sportsman at school. I was always the athlete among my friends. And suddenly I was the disabled man.
“Parasport has given me my identity back. And I think that’s the big motivation for me to keep jumping further and further than some of the Olympic athletes of today, because I’m not the disabled guy. I am the athlete.”
Rehm is one of the most successful long jumpers in the history of the Paralympic Games and holds the world record of 8.72 meters in the men’s T64 class. He has been undefeated in the long jump at the Paralympic Games since London 2012.
“What I like most (about sports) is meeting great people, meeting great athletes to compete,” Rehm said. “I love participating, I still love what I do. I like the long jump.”
Before you start Para swimmingUganda Husna Kukundakwe was shy and self-conscious. Born without her right forearm, Kukundakwe hid her missing limb under long sleeves.
But she doesn’t need long sleeves anymore.
“When I started swimming, a sport that requires you to take off all your clothes and be open in the water, I started to feel more comfortable with myself, more comfortable with people staring at me. It didn’t matter to me, and I decided to focus more on myself.”
“I love how free it makes me feel. I never felt uncomfortable in the water.”
Kukundakwe was the youngest athlete at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games at the age of 14. She competed in three events Paris 2024her second Games.
“I like to show people my disability, and I like to show people that I’m different. And that’s okay. I just like to feel comfortable in my own skin without the fear of being discriminated against.
“I wouldn’t have gained that confidence if I hadn’t started para swimming.”
Great Britain Robin Love picked up wheelchair basketball after watching the London 2012 Paralympic Games. More than a decade later, she says parasport has shown her that “disability is positive.
“Parasport has made me proud that I am disabled. It made me proud of who I am, all of me,” Love said. “Sport is a great way to create positive experiences around people with disabilities.”
Paris has always been a special place for love; the French capital is where she proposed to her partner and teammate Laurie Williams. It was also the place where she competed for their daughter Alba this summer.
“I think the Paralympic movement is about diversity and inclusion. For me, I’m just grateful that I can participate not only as my true authentic self with a disability, but also as my true authentic self as a person.”
“When I think about my daughter, she just thinks that people in wheelchairs are wonderful. I want her to just walk down the street and smile at someone in a chair, smile like someone who is an amputee and has no fear or reservations.
During the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, Elliot Loonstra was Aruba‘s standard bearer and also the only athlete in the parade. By recording Para taekwondohe made history by becoming the only athlete from Aruba to participate in two Games.
With his striking blue hair and heart-shaped sunglasses, the Para-taekwondo athlete walked down the Champ Elysees and embraced the chance to represent the island country at one of the world’s biggest sporting events.
“It’s a lot of pressure sometimes because I feel like I have 120,000 or 130,000 people behind me and I’m the one who has to represent them in the sport. But at the same time it is a great honor, especially because I am the only one here.”
“I’m the one holding up that flag. I’m the one who says, ‘You know what? We may be small, but Aruba is still here. We are still represented at one of the biggest sporting events in the world. It feels great.”
“The goal is obviously to go home with the gold, but even if I don’t go home with the gold, I already have some gold here,” he said, pointing to his heart.
Although he did not win a medal in Paris, he has high expectations for it LA 2028 and create more history for his country.
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