Table Tennis – Therapy of Polio Victim 2016 Paralympics Bronze Medalist
September 14, 2016A P1-MILLION cash incentive awaits Josephine Medina who gave the Philippines a bronze medal in women’s class 8 table tennis competition of the ongoing Rio 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her feat ended the 16-year drought of the country in the Games.
Josephine Medina [Photo from http://new.ittf.com/2016/09/12/%5D
“We are happy of Josephine winning a bronze. The signs of the time for Philippine sports and the momentum is good. She will receive P1 million and we plan to give allowances to all the Paralympics delegates during our board meeting tomorrow,” Ramirez said, adding that from Hidilyn Diaz, a Rio Olympics silver medalist, to Medina and preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics seem encouraging with the support of President Rodrigo Duterte and his administration.
Medina scored an 11-5, 11-6, 11-7 upset victory over Germany’s Juliane Wolf, a 2015 European Para Championships silver medalist, to improve her fourth finish in the 2012 London Olympics.
Medina, in an International Table Tennis Federation report on its website, said table tennis became her therapy as a polio victim. She used to compete with able-bodied athletes and qualified to the national team but she was then rejected having been told that she was disabled, thus, could not be part of the national team. [This reminds me of our hero, Apolinario Mabini who could have been the First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court but was similarly rejected because of an article in the Law dated 1899 disbarring a person with disability to hold the office – an important segment in my documentaries “The Sublime Paralytic” and “Pule: Utak ng Rebolusyon”]
“The rejection has become my inspiration and I train hard and I just want to prove that disability is not a hindrance in achieving your goal. It’s just an instrument in reaching success in your life,” Medina told ITTF.
[For the full article, click, http://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/sports/2016/09/14/p1m-awaits-paralympics-bronze-medalist-medina-497572%5D
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