After the 2014 Asian Para Games (ASIAN Para Games) held in Incheon City (South Korea), the Vietnamese sports delegation competed very successfully. Sports fans could not help feeling a pang of sadness and admiration as they looked at the efforts to rise up from difficult lives of the athletes who brought glory home to their country.
The 2014 ASIAN Para Games drew 2,850 athletes from 41 countries and territories, competing in 23 sports. The Vietnamese delegation competed in only 6 sports but won 9 gold, 7 silver and 13 bronze medals, far exceeding its medal target and ranking 10th overall.
Behind the success of the Vietnamese delegation of athletes with disabilities were many faces who achieved remarkable feats, such as swimmer Vo Thanh Tung, who won 5 gold medals for the Vietnamese delegation of athletes with disabilities at the Games, breaking the Asian swimming record, and Nguyen Binh An (weightlifting), who won gold and broke the Asian record.
Most memorable of all was probably the gold medal won by weightlifter Le Van Cong, the first gold medal for the Vietnamese delegation of athletes with disabilities at these Games, which broke the world record… In particular, swimmer Vo Thanh Tung winning 5 gold medals in all 5 events he entered created a feat for Vietnamese sport at the ASIAN Para Games.
Before leaving, the delegation’s target was to win 4–5 gold medals of all kinds, with hopes of medals resting only on weightlifting and swimming. Yet the athletes achieved much more than that. With 29 medals of all kinds (9 gold, 7 silver, 13 bronze), this was a huge step forward compared with four years earlier. The delegation exceeded its target thanks to the extraordinary efforts of the coaches and athletes, people who overcame misfortune to triumph over fate.
The Para Games are known as a place that shows the will and resilience of unfortunate people who have risen above fate and smiled in victory. Winning a gold medal at the ASIAN Para Games is always the wish of every athlete.
For non-disabled athletes, achieving such success takes a great deal of hardship, but for athletes with disabilities the hardship is many times greater… Many people have said that watching disability sport teaches the audience a lesson in overcoming adversity.
Not only Vo Thanh Tung, Nguyen Binh An and Le Van Cong, but all the other athletes with disabilities deserve to be learned from for the way they rise above their own difficulties.
For people with disabilities, getting through everyday life is already hard, and taking part in sport is harder still. Besides striving to train when their bodies are not as complete as other people’s, their allowances fall far short of those of non-disabled athletes. Apart from a small number of units that look after the training pay of a few key athletes, almost all athletes with disabilities train without any pay.
So difficulties pile upon difficulties. Besides having to train to maintain their form and compete well in the hope of prize money to support their lives, they also carry the burden of making a living in everyday life.
It is therefore hard not to feel a pang of sadness that the care given to athletes with disabilities is so small compared with the huge investment in non-disabled athletes. Yet on the continental stage, their resounding achievements have outshone the meagre number of medals Vietnamese athletes won at the 17th Asian Games just before.
Faced with these contrasting results, many fans ask why disability sport is not invested in more strongly, or even boldly made the spearhead of Vietnamese sport. But…, as some specialists sadly observe: disability sport is a humane policy, but no country wants disability sport to become the main focus.
According to Le Giang (Ho Chi Minh City Sports) – http://khampha.vn/