The Paralympic Games are a sports competition full of emotions, in which all participants are winners. Since they prepare they have already won, as they are men and women who have surpassed themselves.
In Tokyo-2020 we attended the XVIII edition of these appointments, which began in Rome-1960, but that of the Japanese capital already brings us a different look: it is the first in which a city welcomes them for the second time, after to host them in 1964.
The Tokyo competition is also the one with the most women in the competition, with 1 853 out of a total of 4 403. Another novelty of this competition is that it has made two disciplines debut in its competitive program: badminton and taekwondo.
To the sensations that these athletes awaken in us, we could add the exclusivities that the Paralympic jousts have. Many of the modalities in which the medals are disputed have their Olympic version, but there are others that are only the heritage of the confrontations that we are seeing today. Boccia and goalball, or golbol in Spanish, are two of them.
The first is similar to the well-known bowling game, and in its reboots it was only practiced by people with cerebral palsy. Currently, it is cultivated by any athlete in a wheelchair with paralysis, brain injury or severe disability.
The golbol is only for blind or visually impaired people. Two teams of three players meet for 24 minutes. The idea is that the ball enters the opposing goal using the hearing capacity, since the ball has bells inside. The players wear masks to compete on equal terms.
Tokyo-2020 has one week left, and it couldn’t have a better climax than the exploits of these heroes and heroines.
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