What I learned this week:  This week I share a few stories from the Olympics and paraolympics. 

A pregnant archer and fencer what? Yaylagul Ramazanova (Azerbaijan archer)defeats the WR holder in the ranked 185th in the world and defeated a chinese archer ranked 28th in the 1/32nd round.  She ended up being eliminated the following round but she went into the games 61/2 months pregnant!  Let’s go! 

A pregnant fencer - Nada Hafez makes it through a first few rounds - 7 months pregnant?!?  

A 58 year of table tennis player? Zhiying Zeng (Chilean Table Tennis player of Chinese origin) She started out young and even got on the CHinese team at 16 but then a rule change about the different color of her paddle affected how people could read her game.  She moved to Chile to teach table tennis as a job offer game in.  Played a little here and there but then played in the Chilean team in the Pan Am games and won bronze.  The people in Chile call her Tia Tania or Auntie Tania. 

Cut to Paris 2024 and Zeng’s lifelong dream of becoming an Olympian finally came true. Her 92-year-old father stayed up till 5 am in China to watch his daughter realize her dream, as she qualified for what is the pinnacle of all sporting events.

An emotional Zeng told CNN - “My dad was able to see his daughter qualify for the Olympics….He used to take me to training and to matches when I was a girl and now at 57 (her age when she qualified for the Olympics), I made it. I made it.”

For 3 Olympics trials Marisa Howard has been trying to make it to the olympics.  She has been training, dealing, no sponsor, and then coming back after having her son Kai in 2022 and finally was able to make it on June 27th to make the 3rd spot for the steeplechase.  She ran the 9:07:14 a personal best.  It is inspiring to see someone so determined and willing to try.  She has made it.  In the Olympics she didn’t make the finals but  I really like some of the two quote: 

“The day after I qualified, we were driving back home to Idaho and we were all tired. Kai was exhausted and screaming in the car, and I told my husband, ‘He doesn’t care that I’m an Olympian, he just wants food and sleep and, really, I’m just mom,’” she said. “It’s humbling—there’s nothing more humbling than taking care of your sick baby—and I think as a parent, we’re humbled every single day, and we come up short sometimes despite doing the best we can, but I’m thankful that there’s grace and forgiveness. I think it makes those high moments so much sweeter.”

Kym Crosby, she has Albinism and is  visually impaired runner due to that.  She says thanks to her brother who encouraged her to be an athlete and when she discovered track, something she could do without help she was hooked.  Has been running for the past 15 year and been professional for the past 10 years.  She won Bronze in Rio De Janeiro, in London and in Tokyo and she is competing again in Paris.  She will be running the 100m and the 400m races. 

Mckensie Coan - paralympic swimmer - Born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or brittle bone disease - was told the she would never walk or stand  because he bones break so easily. At 8 years old she discovered parapolympic in swimming as she had been doing swimming and aqua therapy to help her condition.  She has now been to four olympics and qualified for the Paris olympics.  She will be competing in the 50 Butterfly, 50 Freestyle, 100 Freestyle, and 400 Freestyle in Paris in August.

Julia Gaffney - born without legs and adopted from a Russian Orphanage to an American family from Little Rock Arkansas.

 Julia Kay Gaffney (born May 1, 2000) is an American Paralympic swimmer who competes in international level events. She was born with proximal femoral focal deficiency and had her right leg with amputated above the knee and her left leg amputated below the knee due to fibular hemimelia when she was born.[1][2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Gaffney

She grew up with 4 brothers and always liked sports.  Her mom was a competitive swimmer and enrolled her in a summer swim program and started her in 2014.  She says she loved competing and even beating people with all their legs.  She is going to the Paris Olympics again