OPINION> Dylan Quinnell
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OPINION> Dylan Quinnell
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Reaction, not the event, is what counts
By Dylan Quinnell (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-09-18 17:38 Someone insightful once said - there are no good and bad events, there are simply good and bad reactions to those events - or something along those lines. This applies to Paralympians, or superlympians as a fellow columnist referred to them. Some Paralympians have lived with a disability from birth and simply made the most of life and all its opportunities. Take for example Salih Koeseoglu, one of the best players on the German wheelchair rugby team. He was born with a limb deficiency, his left arm ending at the elbow and his legs are not fully formed. Yet he doesn’t let that stop him careening around the court at astonishing speeds and catching and passing a football-sized-ball with a practiced ease. Other Paralympians were previously accomplished sportsmen or just sports lovers before an accident changed their lives. In both cases it is not that fact that life has thrown you a curve ball, but how you handle it that counts. It is hard to argue that a rugby scrum that collapses on your head or a serious car crash in which your boyfriend dies are good things, and yet through determination and hard work, they lose some of their life-changing gravity. Swedish swimmer Anders Olsson celebrated his 44th birthday by winning a bronze medal in the S6 50m Freestyle, adding to the two golds he had won earlier. Olsson was an accomplished triathlete and ice hockey player before an accident during an operation 12 years ago left him paralyzed from the waist down. One would imagine that after his accident a sportsman like him would be devastated knowing he would not be able to ride, run or skate ever again. However, after lying in bed for seven years Olsson decided enough was enough and took his life into his own hands by taking up swimming again. The rest, as they say, is history, as the star swimmer shows that age and disability are no boundaries to achieving success. South African Natalie Du Toit, is another example. At age 16 she nearly qualified for the Sydney Olympics in three different events. Then on her way home from training a year later, a careless driver backed into her on her scooter and crushed her left leg. That could have been the end of her swimming career but she chose to react defiantly and within a few weeks was back in the pool. She is now one of the best-known Paralympians, winning five golds in Beijing only two weeks after racing in the grueling Women’s 10km Swim at the Olympics. Life, as my Mum likes to say, is not fair. Bad things can happen to us at any time and I would like to think that I would react like Du Toit or Olsson and get right back up and make the most of my life anyway. Just as it is the reaction of the athletes to their misfortune is the most important factor, the importance of the Paralympics for us, the spectators, is not only in appreciating these amazing athletes, but also in how we react to and treat people with disabilities in the future. I for one will never look at them the same again. Du Toit has a laminated copy of a poem, given to her by her coach but forgotten until after her accident: The tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goals; The tragedy of life lies in not having goals to reach for. It is not a disgrace not to reach for the stars, But it is a disgrace not to have stars to reach for. Author Unknown To contact the columnist: Dylan.quinnell@gmail.com |
