Tue, Aug 24, 2021 page16

• Tokyo Olympics 2020: Japan Paralympic team hopes for more than gold

  • AFP, TOKYO
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  Japan is sending a record number of athletes to the Tokyo Paralympics aiming not only for gold medals, but also to build a more inclusive society, top team official Miki Matheson said.

  A gold medalist herself at the 1998 Winter Paralympics in Nagano, Matheson serves as one of three deputy chiefs of the Japan team and has high hopes for the Games.

  “The success of the Paralympics is not just whether athletes hit the mark or win a lot of medals,” the sportswoman said in an interview.

  

  Former Japanese Winter Olympian and gold medalist Miki Matheson speaks during an interview in Tokyo on Wednesday last week.

  Photo: AFP

  “The Paralympics won’t succeed if we can’t feel that [people with disabilities] can go out more comfortably, and that people around them can change their way of thinking because of the Paralympics,” she added.

  The top sporting event for athletes with disabilities opens today after a year-long COVID-19 delay.

  During the Tokyo Olympics, Japan won a record 27 golds, which the nation’s Olympic Committee said helped build public support for the Games despite the pandemic.

  Matheson said the Paralympics has a mission that goes beyond sport, and that Japan still has some way to go on making society inclusive.

  Matheson, who won three gold medals and one silver in ice sledge speed racing in Nagano, was left paraplegic after a car accident when she was a university student.

  She had practiced judo before the accident, but turned her attention to para sports after her injury.

  The 48-year-old is based in Canada with her family, but is living in her hometown, Tokyo, temporarily while working with the team.

  Despite efforts by Japan since winning the Paralympic host bid to improve disabled access and inclusion, Matheson said there were stark differences with life in Canada.

  “I’m often treated as a disabled person when I’m back in Japan,” said Matheson, who uses a wheelchair. “In Canada, I live without noticing my disability at all.”

  She attributes this in part to a lack of opportunities for disabled and nondisabled people to work and live together in Japan.

  “I think the Paralympics is just one springboard, but it can play a major role” in removing barriers, she said.

  Matheson, who is also a member of the Japan Paralympic Committee, wants the Games to be more than a one-time boost.

  “What we truly have to do is to continue this momentum,” she said. “The end of the closing ceremony can’t be the end of it.”

  Japan’s Paralympic team would have 254 athletes — the largest ever fielded by the country — and would be captained by wheelchair tennis legend Shingo Kunieda.

  Athletes would face challenging conditions, with strict virus rules requiring daily testing and a ban on going anywhere except their accommodation, training sites and venues.

  Some Paralympians face additional risk because underlying health conditions make them more vulnerable to severe illness with COVID-19, or they work in close proximity to assistants and cannot keep socially distant from them.

  “For Paralympians, facing adverse challenges and pursuing what is possible for them is nothing special,” Matheson said.

  “Although conditions are tough in the pandemic, it means a lot for them to see what they can do and shine,” she added.
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