パラリンピック水泳女子100m背泳ぎで１４歳の山田美幸選手が銀メダルというニュースがあったので、ハイライトだけでしたが彼女の泳ぎをYoutubeで見て衝撃を受けました。運動機能の部で両腕のない彼女は足のキックだけで進んでいます。レースには足がまったく機能しない人などそれぞれの障害はまちまちです。滋賀県出身の宇田秀生選手はトライアスロンで銀メダル。インパクトはかなりのものでした。視覚障害を持つ選手の走る競技はアシストする人が手を紐でつないで並走して途中で交代していました。また走り幅跳びなどはそれぞれ独特の掛け声でタイミングを教えて競技に臨んでいました。人間の挑戦の力強さを見せてくれるパラリンピック。選手たちを支える多くの人たちの力。パソコンの画面越しではありましたが感動しました。
I saw on the news that Miyuki Yamada who is 14 years old got Silver Medal in women's 100m backstroke at Tokyo Paralympic Games. When I saw her swim, I was shocked she was swimming only by kicking because she has no arms. In different lanes, some athletes swim only using their arms because they cannot move their legs at all. H. Uda, who is from Shiga, the same prefecture as me, also got Silver Medal in triathlon and I was strongly impacted watching his race. Running races for the athletes who have vision handicaps requires an assistant who runs side by side with a string between their arms and I saw that the assistant changed to another assistant in the middle of the race. In the long jump, the assistant person gave the timing of the jump to the athlete in their own way. I saw the strength that comes with rising to challenges from all these athletes in the Paralympics. I also saw many people's support of the athletes. I was very impressed to watch them even though it was from the screen of my computer.
