Winton Dong

    dht620@sina.com

    THE 15th Paralympic Games drew to a close on Sept. 18, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. During the 11-day competition, Chinese athletes broke 51 world records and won a total of 239 medals, including 107 gold, 81 silver and 51 bronze medals, ranking No.1 and far outpacing other participating countries. Britain took second place with a total of 147 medals.

    In fact, this is the fourth consecutive time Chinese players have dominated the medal listings at the Paralympic Games since the Athens Paralympics in 2004. Due to their wonderful performance, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council of China sent a joint congratulatory letter to the Chinese delegation on Sept. 19.

    However, Chinese media owe the disabled athletes headlines and spotlights as they performed so well but with much less and disproportionate media attention and coverage, which forms a sharp contrast between them and those shining stars at the 2016 Summer Olympics last month. Compared with the fervor of the Summer Olympics, few people know the Paralympic Games and even fewer people watch them. According to statistics from Brazil, only 300,000 tickets for the 15th Paralympic Games were sold by Aug. 21, almost half a month before its opening on Sept. 8, among which the majority of tickets were bought and paid for by the Rio government. As for the ticket sales for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, more than 70 percent of the total 7.5 million tickets had already been sold by June 21, 45 days before its opening on Aug. 5.

    Without loud applause and large audiences, the 308 Chinese athletes competed in 17 out of 22 Paralympic sports categories and inspired the whole world with their unyielding perseverance. “A lot of disabled people in China still struggle with daily life because of physical impairments and poor treatment. Our athletes competing in Rio believe that anything is possible if their hearts set no limitations for themselves,” said Zhang Haidi, head of the Chinese sports delegation and chairwoman of China Disabled Persons’ Federation.

    Disabilities cannot restrain undaunted souls. Their outstanding performances in Rio have not only inspired the world, but also showed the world China’s strong commitment to promoting equality for the disabled in sports. According to China Disabled Persons’ Federation, the country has so far trained more than 42,100 fitness instructors for the disabled and has built 225 provincial and 34 national specialized sports training centers by 2016.

    I am sure that the Chinese athletes’ hard-won success at the Paralympic Games will also serve as an impetus to further spur the improvements in facilities, guidance and accessibility in China, making it more accessible, friendly and convenient for the disabled to participate in sports not only for fun and overall health, but also for rehabilitation and quality of life.

    According to the latest statistics, China now has 85 million disabled persons, accounting for 6.21 percent of its total population. Most of them live in rural areas and at least 15 million of them live below the absolute poverty line. It goes without saying that there is still room for better treatment and further improvement of their situations in China.

    As a journalist, I am really happy to hear such news that the disabled in China get more and more prizes in various international competitions. But it will be even better if with the improvement of medical science and neonatal screening technologies, China will have less and less disabled citizens in the future.

    (The author is the editor-in-chief of the Shenzhen Daily and guest professor of Shenzhen University with a Ph.D. from the Journalism and Communication School of Wuhan University.)