The appeal of para-sports! I will teach you how to aim for Tokyo 2020!

Report by KYOPRO Staff

On January 18, 2019, at the Tama Campus, an extracurricular education program "The Appeal of Para Sports! I will teach you as I aim for Tokyo 2020!" was held at the Tama Campus on January 18, 2019. Student Center's "I Will Teach You!" program is an entry system for students who want to share and introduce their own efforts, special skills, qualifications, growth through activities, failure stories, etc. to other students without limiting themselves to their own experiences.

Mr. Yamashita had his left leg amputated in a car accident when he was 10 years old. He has played hard tennis since he was a child, but started athletics as a sophomore in college and is now aiming to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. She said that she came across the goal of the Paralympics when she was a sophomore in college and wanted to share with other students what she felt through her daily practice and activities, which is what prompted her to enter this year's competition.

While aiming for the Paralympics, Ms. Yamashita has been visiting elementary and junior high schools across Japan to give lectures and give hands-on classes on prosthetic legs, and this time she gave a lecture introducing para-sports in particular and her own experiences to date. Yamashita entered the Faculty of Sports and Health Studies with the idea of helping people with the same disabilities as himself, and in his sophomore year he encountered a class called "Top Athletes Theory. He was impressed by the guest lecturer, Toru Suzuki, a track and field athlete with a prosthetic leg, and this is the starting point of his current activities and goals. In his lecture, Mr. Yamashita actually showed us how he puts on and takes off his prosthetic leg using a prosthetic leg for daily life and for competition. After introducing the types of sports and methods of competition in the Paralympic Games, he asked the audience, "What do you think about people with disabilities?" He then asked the audience, "What do you think of people with disabilities? He said that while some people have prejudice against people with disabilities, saying that they seem to have a hard time or are different from themselves, he would be happy if they feel that they are not so different from able-bodied people when they see people like him, and that is why he gives these lectures.

Yamashita's every word is captivating, perhaps because track and field is a path that she has been pursuing with interest and belief that she wants to pursue. Her story of personal growth was particularly impressive, as she said that her track and field experience made her proud of her legs, which she had kept hidden until now, and she wanted to let everyone know more about them. She said, "If it weren't for the classes at Faculty of Sports and Health Studies, the prosthetist, and the coach who asked me to train with him, I would be an ordinary college student now. The students who participated felt as if they received a big encouragement for their future student life from her words, "A challenge to 'just start' with curiosity can lead to a big step that can change a person's life. It may not be long before we are cheering her on in front of the TV.