Sports, even at the inter-barangay level, is hard enough even for a non-disabled person. Imagine not having an arm, yet competing in the men’s 50-meter butterfly, no legs and going for a three-point shot, or sightless but running the 100-meter dash.
Those are just three of the 22 individual and team sports at the 2024 Paris Paralympics Games, where Paralympians worldwide competed in 549 medal events.
But what makes these Paralympians awe-inspiring is not what they do in the 11 days during the quadrennial event but how they keep beating the odds the rest of the 1,448 days before each Paralympics.
Ernie Gawilan
In case you haven’t yet, meet Toyota para athlete Ernie Gawilan. This guy has been doing nothing but winning since he was born.
Unlike yours and mine, Ernie’s game was set up for him to lose. He was orphaned early – his dad left, and his mom passed away when he was five months old. Grandpa raised him until he was nine, then he went to live at a training center run by the Maryknoll sisters of St. Dominic in Samal Island and developed a love for swimming.
Those first 10 years are a win in my book already.
He almost got disqualified in his first competition when he forgot his trunks but was allowed to compete in bulky cargo pants and finished in second place – another win. After that, it was an avalanche of medals as a member of the national team:
* 2014 Asian Para Games — three bronze medals.
* 2015 ASEAN Para Games — gold in the 400-meter freestyle; gold in the men’s 200-meter individual medley; silver in the men’s 100-meter freestyle.
* 2022 Asian Para Games — one gold, and two bronze medals.
*2022 ASEAN Paralympic Games Indonesia; two gold, one silver, one bronze medals.
* 2023 ASEAN Paralympic Games in Cambodia - two gold, two silver, one bronze medals.
But what makes Ernie the absolute role model/hero is his advocacy, which is environmental stewardship. In 2019, he led 1,900 volunteers in planting 40,000 mangrove propagules while collecting 1,200 sacks of waste in 30 locations across the Philippines. The pandemic derailed plans for succeeding events, but planning for the next national coastal clean-up and mangrove planting is underway.
Le Van Kong
Para powerlifting athlete Le Van Kong was born prematurely, resulting in legs too small to use. He overcame the stigma and social prejudice of the local village people and was even rejected by a university in Ho Chi Minh. He resorted to studying and then teaching woodwork to make ends meet. Joining the local gym was only to strengthen his hands for his job.
Still, fate had other plans – a gold in the 2017 World Para Powerlifting Championships, a silver in the 2021 World Para Powerlifting Championships, a silver in the 2020 Summer Paralympics, and a bronze in the 2024 Summer Paralympics.
In 2019, he auctioned off his 2016 gold medal to help fund his neighbor’s daughter’s cancer treatment. If that’s not a hero, I don’t know what is.
Pongsakorn Paeyo
Pongsakorn Paeyo from Thailand was born with polio and lost his dad when he was two years old. His mom worked as a farmhand to earn a living as the family’s primary breadwinner. In college, he was not given any preferential treatment and had to crawl to classrooms in his building. These challenges made him tough enough to earn a spot in the national team at 18 years old.
He brought home two gold medals from the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games, three golds from the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games, broke the 400-meter record along the way, and just recently won the 400-meter race in the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games. He aims to spread the message of equality among Paralympic and Olympic counterparts.
Abdul Latif Romly
I must mention 2024 Paris Para Athletics (Long Jump) silver medalist Abdul Latif Romly. He suffers from a learning disability. He would have been called 100 different nasty names and labels back then – thank goodness for today’s more inclusive society.
Now, he is a two-time Paralympic gold medalist (he won his first at 19 years old), a four-time World Champion, a three-time Asian Para Games champion, a four-time ASEAN Para Games champion, and has set several world records, including the long jump at 7.64 meters.
He also holds two honors of Malaysia – Officer of the Order of the Defender of the Realm and Commander of the Order of the Territorial Crown.
It is not surprising that he chose to support early access to education for children with special needs as his advocacy.
Toh Wei Soong
Toh Wei Soong competes in the Para Swimming event and has an impressive collection of medals, including eight golds and four silvers at the ASEAN Para Games (while setting a new national record for the men’s 100-meter backstroke); five golds, one silver, and a bronze medal at the Asian Para Games; and two silver and two bronze medals at the Commonwealth Games. He is one of the most decorated Singaporean swimmers and athletes in the Para Games.
Oh, by the way, at two years old, Toh Wei had transverse myelitis, which adversely affected his spinal cord and restricted his leg use. He is advocating for equal opportunities.
Ni Nengah Widiasih
You can’t help but be impressed with Indonesian powerlifter Ni Nengah Widiasih. She lost the use of her legs at four years old because of polio and was sent to live in a dorm for kids with special needs.
That didn’t stop her from winning three World Cup gold medals, three Asian Para Games silver medals, two Asian Championships silver medals, and a mind-boggling eight ASEAN Para Games gold medals.
To put it in perspective, she competes in the 40-kilogram category but bench presses over 220 pounds. She leads the cause for greater accessibility for differently-abled individuals.
Ernie, Le, Pongsakorn, Abdul, Toh Wei, and Widi are just six of the 11 athletes under Toyota's "Start Your Impossible" initiative, who competed in 2024 Paris Paralympics. The other five notable Toyota dual-heroes are two-time Olympic gold medalist Carlos Yulo (represents orphans and children below the poverty line), Thai badminton player Kunvalut Vitidsarn (promotes sports uptake in youth and children for better health), Pakistani javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem (more access to sports for the youth), Nepalese table tennis player Nabita Shrestha (aims for community welfare and women empowerment), and Indian long jump athlete Sreeshankar Murali (seeks youth empowerment focusing on promoting continued education.
They are not Paralympians but theypossess an equally impressive resume and, more importantly, are raising awareness for the chosen advocacies.
Each Toyota athlete has an extraordinary life story about winning against the odds and is also a part of Toyota's "Dual Heroes," as they champion a social cause to foster positive change in the community and make the world cleaner, greener, and more inclusive.
The Olympics isn’t easy, neither is the Paralympics. The kind of training Paralympians go through to swim, shoot, run, fight (Judo and Taekwondo), and basically compete in will put any non-disabled person to shame.
But the game of life is far harder than both. Persons with disability face accessibility concerns on top of educational barriers, discrimination, stigmatization, and employment disparities, among many others, every day. Yet, as shown by Paralympians, you can keep winning every day (and bring home medals along the way) despite what seems like insurmountable odds.
So, if you find yourself in a tough spot today or any day and feel like giving up, pick yourself up just like they did. It won’t be easy, but they did it, and you can too.
Their lives are the perfect example of how to triumph over adversity and overcome the impossible. That’s the Paralympic spirit, which is what the Olympics is about.