Teenage Ugandan swimmer Husnah Kukundakwe yesterday said that she felt like she could “touch the clouds” after making her Paralympic debut and hopes it could change attitudes in Africa toward disability.
The 14-year-old Kukundakwe, the youngest athlete at the Tokyo Games, swam in the women’s SB8 100m breaststroke, finishing sixth in her heat.
The Games are being shown on free-to-air broadcast in 49 African territories thanks to an International Paralympic Committee initiative and Kukundakwe hopes her race could have a transformative effect.
Photo: AFP
“Africa in general will learn that people with disabilities are just like normal people, and they need to do whatever they want to do,” she said. “I feel like I could even touch the clouds because I’m the youngest here, and just seeing how the others are doing and swimming with them is such an amazing experience.”
Kukundakwe said that babies born with disabilities in Uganda are often abandoned by their parents, and she hoped the Paralympics would make them realize “the choice they made was really bad.”
“Maybe giving these kids a chance, when they see that they’re different from other people and they realize that they want to do something, sport can help them raise their confidence,” she said.
Kukundakwe was born without her right forearm and also has an impairment to her left hand.
She used to cover them with a sweater when she was at school, but swimming gave her the confidence to overcome her shyness.
The Ugandan’s time was not fast enough to reach the final, but she said she was “really excited to get the official title of Paralympian.”
“When I go back home and people say Paralympian Husnah Kukundakwe, I will feel more real,” she said. “This moment is real. At the Paralympics I have competed and I’m actually a Paralympian now.”
Kukundakwe said that she was “really nervous” before the race, and admitted to being “star struck” by the other swimmers in the warm-up area.
She completed her race in a new personal-best time of 1 minute, 34.35 seconds, and vowed to improve as she works toward the 2024 Paris Games.
“It shows me how I’m progressing — just seeing how I’m progressing makes me want to progress more and keep moving until I get to the point where I can actually get a medal,” she said.
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