Translator: Hiroshi Uchiyama Reviewer: Claire Ghyselen
T44
Do you know what T44 means?
If you know what it means, please raise your hand.
Thank you very much.
Congratulations! You know more about it than I expected.
T44 is my class of impairment
in Athletics classification for track and field.
In the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Paralympic Games,
the media have talked a lot about the Paralympic Games,
so awareness has increased in society gradually.
[T: Track. Example: 100m, relay, marathon.
44: below-knee amputation, ankle impairment]
"T" stands for track in athletics 100-meter sprints, relays, marathons
or any other running events.
"44" stands for the type of impairment.
Athletes with below-knee amputation, on one leg like me,
and athletes with one leg paralyzed at the ankle are classified in the "44".
By classifying athletes by type and degree of impairment
you can organise fair competition in Paralympic competitions.
Just as Olympic athletes do,
athletes with impairment are working out every day
in order to reach the very top and excel in their sport.
There is no difference between Olympians and Paralympians
in our passionate desire to reach the very top and excel.
In Japan today,
people have rare chances to encounter impairment.
People are not used to it,
both in a positive and negative way,
so they react unnaturally and feel nervous about it.
I often feel such atmosphere.
On the other hand,
advancement in science and technology
can redeem efficiently something lost or something deficient.
Now, impaired individual can live a life
very similar to the one lived by non-impaired people.
In the near future,
the distance between us
will get closer and closer.
Maybe in some specific areas,
impaired people will be able to display
greater performances than non-impaired people.
Let me ask you: what does impairment mean to you?
I would like to share time with everybody here
to ponder this question together.
When I was born, I had two legs.
[Ewing sarcoma]
When I was 15 years old,
I had a malignant tumor onset called Ewing sarcoma.
I decided by myself what treatment would be best,
and to get the lower part of my right leg cut from the knee.
When I made the decision to get the amputation,
and when I lost my leg,
as strange as it may seem, I did not feel depressed about it.
I did not realize that I had lost my leg for real
and it was like all this was happening to someone that was not me.
Moreover,
I was convinced that when I would be wearing a prosthetic limb,
I would be able to live like I did usually in the past.
But when I wore my prosthetic limb for the first time,
I could not walk, actually, I could not even stand up.
Oh! I felt that my life was over.
I was young but that's what I thought.
I was overwhelmed by strong and dark emotions
that I would never be able again to do a lot of things I had done before.
I also felt that there was something wrong with being different from the others.
[Hiding my prosthetic leg]
So, I used to hide my prosthetic limb and my impairment.
I wore long trousers even during the heat of summer.
I was unable accept my impairment at that time.
A big turning point came during my darkest moments.
[Track and Field]
I bumped into track and field athletics.
I had started running as a mean to recover my health
after entering high school.
I used to hate running long distances.
But, at that moment, I felt
genuine pleasure to be able to run.
Running,
such an obvious activity,
made me feel genuine pleasure.
It was an emotion I had not been able to feel
when I still had my two legs like anyone healthy.
To celebrate the start of second grade at high school,
I joined a track and field competition for impaired athletes in Shizuoka.
I met two Paralympians there with prosthetic limbs,
Atsushi Yamamoto and Mr. Jun Haruta.
They introduced me to Paralympic sports.
Their appearance was so imposing.
Their behavior was attracting everyone's attention on their prosthetic limb
while I was always trying to hide mine.
When I was watching them, a shift of perspective happened to me.
Until now, I only had felt shame about my prosthetic limb.
But it was actually my behavior to try hiding my prosthetic limb
that was totally uncool.
That shift of perception triggered in me
the power to accept my life with a prosthetic limb.
Then I started physical training with Mr. Yamamoto and Mr. Haruta.
As I was running more and more races,
I started to feel the deep longing to run for Paralympic Games.
Following their path,
I went to a university famous for its strong track and field team.
During my university years,
a lot of people blessed me with their support.
I honed my skills together with them.
I was eventually chosen to represent Japan at the London Paralympic Games in 2012.
And I did participate to the Paralympic Game that year.
I was eliminated at the preliminary round for individuals
but I got the 4th place at the relay race.
Standing in the arena of the Paralympic Games,
was the reward of my grit to get there, and it was a wonderful experience.
And then, at the Rio de janeiro Paralympic Games, last 2016,
I broke the national record of Japan in the 100-meter sprint,
and we earned bronze medals in the 4x100 meters relay,
in which I was in charge of the second leg, so to speak.
(Applause)
But this is just one step on the way.
My real objective is 2020, the Tokyo Paralympic Games.
I want to do even better.
When I lost my right leg, I could not accept my impairment.
I used to hide my prosthetic leg, as I told you before.
10 years have passed since then and I am not the same person anymore.
Now, I do wear shorts and walk around streets
without any care about my surrounding gazing at my leg.
I don't meet any difficulties with my daily life.
I sometimes forget about my prosthetic leg, indeed.
Then, I encountered track and field and I was selected by the national team.
I participated to the Paralympic Games.
In Rio, I got a medal.
I don't mean to compare my life to what it could have been
should I have been healthy. It's just meaningless.
But should I have lived as non-impaired person,
I would not have been able, ever, to stand on this stage.
Let me share my feeling with you.
My feeling of happiness is greater than what I have lost.
My feelings of happiness have deepened.
[If you never suffer, can you experience happiness?]
"If you never suffer, can you experience happiness?"
This phrase encouraged me when I was hospitalized.
Although you feel pain at the present moment,
surmounting that pain will bring you good things and luck.
That mindset helped me find the way to positive emotions.
One big characteristics of sports for impaired athletes
or competition for impaired athletes is the following:
athletes and players are never competing alone.
I am not talking about the difference between individual and team sports.
The people who make, with diligence, equipments compensating for impairments
such as prosthetic limbs or wheel chairs,
are also participating to those competitions.
I receive strong support from the artisan who made the prosthetic limb
that I wore in the Paralympic Games race at Rio de Janeiro.
Our objective is to compete with non-impaired athletes,
to end the discrimination,
and then, to run faster than them.
In the past, when a prosthetic limb was simply a replacement of a lost leg,
it was unfathomable to think that way.
But today, I think we can do it.
The advances of technology is so big that it makes us feel it is possible.
What will you think when an athlete with a prosthetic limb
runs faster the 100-meter sprint among non-impaired athletes?
Will you think it is not fair to have impaired athletes
equipped with prosthetic limbs especially designed for running?
This is something we will have to ponder about in the very near future.
At the beginning of my talk, I asked you all
what impairment means to you. [What is impairment?]
Did you visualize something different from what you felt before,
upon listening to my talk?
When you watch me standing here, do you see a non-impaired individual?
Or do you see an impaired individual?
If I walk in the street in a pair of pants,
people walk by me will rarely notice that I am impaired, without right leg.
As a matter of fact,
I even think that I am more skilled at running than anyone of you.
In daily life, we question a lot the line between impairment and non-impairment.
That's my feeling, at least.
If you lose your leg, you must be impaired.
So, does it mean that when your legs get weaker,
when you need a cane if you have been injured,
does it mean that you are impaired?
If you are blind, you must be impaired.
Then does it mean that being short-sighted or having presbyopia,
in need of glasses in your daily life, but when you are not wearing your glasses
does it mean that you should be considered impaired?
Everybody gets old.
When you can not do anymore what you used to be able to do,
should we call you impaired?
I think it is getting harder and harder [healthy person - Impaired person]
to distinguish impaired from non-impaired.
In fact, it has become meaningless to draw a line somewhere in between.
Losing something is tough.
All the more so when you lose a part of your body.
But I am convinced that we can adapt and get something new
in proportion to what we have lost,
something we would not have been able to get otherwise.
True. I have lost my right leg.
But because I have lost my leg, I encountered with track and field
and I could define ambitious objectives for myself.
I could also meet a lot of people.
And more importantly, I could meet each of you all here.
It is meaningless to compare my life with and without my leg,
or ask which life is better.
But there is one thing I can say for sure.
I enjoy everyday with fun and pleasure.
Positive things and negative ones get balanced in life. So we say.
[Life +/- 0]
It's my conviction that there are more positive things to get out of life.
At the beginning of my talk, I asked you what impairment means to you.
I have not yet found out what is right answer to that question.
I believe you all feel the same.
I guess there is no clear answer to that question, nowhere.
However, let us ponder this question together.
By thinking about it together,
we can create a society where everybody feels welcome,
regardless of their health situation.
That is my strong belief.
(Applause)