On the afternoon of August 29, Beijing time, in the rematch of the women's 50m freestyle S11 (visual impairment) final of the Tokyo Paralympic Games, China's Ma Jia broke the world record in 29.20 seconds to win the gold medal, and Li Guizhi won the silver medal with a difference of 0.52 seconds. Two days later, the two Chinese girls re-won the gold and silver medals of this project, and even the rematch did not stop them from competing for gold and silver.
Just two days ago, Ma Jia won the championship in the final of the project with a time of 29.46 seconds and set a new world record, followed by Li Guizhi to win the silver medal. However, shortly after the competition, the gold and silver medals of the two players were cancelled, and the final of the event needed to be re-played after the Dutch athlete complained that he had been hit by a Chinese athlete and was forced to change the direction of swimming.
When the final restarted, Ma Jia in the 3rd lane and Li Guizhi in the 5th lane led all the way from the start, continuing the previous good state. Ma Jia once again set a new world record, further improving her performance from swimming two days ago.
Born in 1998, Ma Jia is a native of Shijiazhuang, and at the age of 23, she participated in the Paralympic Games for the first time. Ma Jia suffers from congenital visual disability, and although she has never seen the world as it is, she has never allowed herself to sink into a dark world, but has been more mature and sensible than children her peers since childhood. At the age of 12, Ma Jia was favored by the coach of the blind gateball team in a local athlete selection activity, but due to various factors such as age and health, she did not engage in croquet and returned to school to continue her studies. Two years later, Ma Jia once again participated in the selection of paralympic athletes and was called into the provincial paralympic swimming team, which was a project she had never touched at that time, overcoming the fear of the early stage of training, and Ma Jia officially became a swimmer under the guidance of the coach.
Day-to-day training is naturally boring and hard, especially for blind athletes, it is inevitable that there will often be bumps and bumps, and the scars on the body are also stubble and stubble. Only a teenager, Ma Jia gritted her teeth and persevered until the 2013 National Paralympic (Under 22) Swimming Championships, where she stood on the official competition for the first time and won five gold medals in the S13 50m, 100m, 400m freestyle and 100m breaststroke and backstroke. That year, Ma Jia was only 15 years old. Later, Ma Jia became more and more prominent in various domestic competitions, until she entered the national team and came to the Tokyo Paralympic Games.
Li Guizhi, who is five years older than Ma Jia, also won a bronze medal in the women's 100m backstroke S11 class at the Paralympic Games. As early as the 2012 London Paralympic Games, Li Guizhi began her own Olympic journey. Li Guizhi's blindness in both eyes is due to family genetics, and like Ma Jia, she has been blind since childhood, and began to learn to swim in 2008, she has a strong understanding and perseverance, and soon learned a very standardized swimming posture. In 2012, Li Guizhi won a silver medal in the women's S11 class 50m freestyle and a bronze medal in the women's S11 class 100m freestyle; four years later, at the Rio Paralympic Games, Li Guizhi won a world record gold in the women's 50m freestyle S11 level, in addition to a silver medal in the women's 100m freestyle S11 competition.
Although fate has robbed the two girls of their light, they are playing a wonderful life in their own world. Even if the final was to be re-staged, they did not let the gold and silver medals fall.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Wang Fan
Editor/Zhou Xueshuai