"Basketball girl" Qian Hongyan: Without legs can "stand" in the arena of destiny

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China Youth Daily client Xi'an, October 24 (China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Liang Xuan) Shaanxi Paralympic Special Olympics is underway, before the women's 100m breaststroke SB5 level competition, Qian Hongyan formed a triangle with her hands and body, "standing" herself on the starting platform, the starting gun sounded, she threw her arms into the water, after 1 minute 51 seconds and 96 seconds, she won a silver medal.

"They helped me shoot the video of the game, at first I was behind, but slowly I caught up, I was very nervous to watch it myself, and the result was a bonus." Most of the time, Qian Hongyan's expression is always faint, and when it comes to swimming, especially when the result exceeds expectations, her eyes will smile and bend, but she will soon retract the curvature of the corner of her mouth. She didn't talk much, and those who knew her well felt that "she had talked a lot", and those expectations and ambitions that did not want to be humane were hidden in the long nails that changed shapes before each game.

In Qian Hongyan's life, expectation and ambition were once ethereal words. In the winter of 1996, she was born in an ordinary peasant family in Zhuangshang Village, Majie Town, Luliang County, Qujing City, Yunnan Province, and when she was 4 years old, Qian Hongyan, who was playing on the road outside the village, lost a shoe, and in order to pick up this shoe, she was hit by a large truck and rolled into the bottom of the car, resulting in a complete amputation below the pelvic bone.

In order to let her continue to go to school, Grandpa Qian Changyou cut the old basketball from the middle, put cotton on the inside, put half a basketball under her body, and also specially made a pair of "wooden hand pads" that could be carried to help her "walk".

Qian Hongyan, who is supported by a basketball, is therefore called a "basketball girl". The small body wrapped in basketball is frozen into an image and breaks into the hearts of many people. Qian Hongyan also received help from all walks of life. In 2007, with the support of the local disabled persons' federation, Qian Hongyan came to Kunming to watch the 7th National Paralympic Games, and on the field, she saw that many people with the same experience as herself were working hard and fighting for honor, and the audience applauded instead of pointing and pointing.

Qian Hongyan thought, "Can I also become a paralympic athlete?" ”

11-year-old Qian Hongyan began another life, initially, she followed the disabled swimming coach Zhang Honghu to learn to swim, without the lower body of her body in the water is seriously unbalanced, always swaying left and right, coaches have entered the water to help her "play assist", slowly, she found a way to move forward in the water, but also found the freedom that her heart desires.

Two years later, Qian Hongyan had already won three gold medals at the 9th Paralympic Games in Yunnan Province in 2009 and 1 gold and 2 silver at the National Para swimming championships held in the same year. In 2016, she represented China at the Rio Paralympic Games and won the ninth place in the women's 100m breaststroke competition.

When the girl who relied on basketball "walking" swam to the world arena, but the grandfather who made the basketball by herself could not escort her granddaughter, Qian Hongyan said that after the death of the grandfather, the family could only draw a drawing for people to customize the basketball for her, but in her opinion, even if it is simple, only the basketball made by the grandfather is the warmest one, and it is precisely because of this basketball that Qian Hongyan's life has a rich possibility.

From the arena to the workplace, Qian Hongyan got the opportunity to work in the Luliang County Disabled Persons' Federation, mainly responsible for applying for a disability certificate, but she has never been far from the swimming pool that revitalized her.

In order to prepare for this Special Olympics, she has to swim five or six kilometers a class, train solidly every day, in order to return to the field, even if she will still choke on water when she is extremely tired from training, but the moment she stands on the podium is the moment when she will not smile.

Qian Hongyan, who was waiting for the starting gun to sound, stared intently at the water, the crystal pink nails propped up on the departure platform were shining, and the statue standing on the plaster column in the museum made the audience have the illusion of "fragility", but in fact, she had found the best balance point in the arena of fate.

Source: China Youth Daily client