The Paratriathlon World Championship was held in Yokohama on May 15th .
After the match, at “Paratora talk 2021” , we invited three paraolimpic players and children had interview time.
We invited
Mr. Kimura
Mr. Sato
Mr. Geert
And children from All Education Academy tried to be the interpreters for this interview.
In the interview, AEA members asked Mr.Skipper questions in English.
Also, other children who came to the interview asked questions in Japanese and AEA children translated them into English for Mr.Skipper.
AEA children also translate Mr.skippers’ answers to Japanese.
Mr.Kimura and Mr.Skipper can’t use their feet and Mr.Sato doesn’t have his left arm from elbow. These 3 players answer all the questions neatly.
The players said they would do their own things to rest their bodies if they were almost given up or wanted to stop.
They also said that they would like to work harder with fans when they heard cheers for them.
Mr.Kimura was conscious towards Mr.Schipper who beat him in the race that was held on the same day as the interview.
From the start till the end of the interview, he continued to talk about himself compared with Schipper and showed the mentality of professional sports players.
Comments of children from AEA
Toga:
At this event, I think I got confidence from the players because they said that they don’t care about their handy capped.When I heard that, I think I was a bit encouraged by them.
Shun:
This time, I watched the para triathlon for the first time.
Players without arms or legs swam, ran, rode bikes and then I thought that “Players made effort.”
The players were kind at the interview so I was relieved.
I asked them, “Did you feel a social barrier to having a disability?” They answered, “Not so much.” I was impressed.
I thought that when I see people with disabilities, I would like to be kind.
Noa:
I also like to play sports and I want to stop when I fail or can’t move the way I want.
However, I sometimes thought about how to do it, or thought that it would become good if I practiced more. But from now on I want to work hard with everyone in the team while taking care of rest.
Yoichiro:
I was very nervous before I talked and translated the comment but while I was translating I didn’t feel nervous and scared,I felt a little bit fun and I felt I had enough skills to talk with native speakers.
At the end, Yusei from AEA said that throughout the whole experience, I was able to learn lots of new and very interesting things from the 3 professional paratriathlon players.
Not only was this experience very fun, some stories were very helpful for my future life with some lessons; for instance, when I heard about how the players hold their motivations high, I was able to achieve a new way of thinking about problems I might face in the future.
Overall, it was a very enjoyable and beneficial experience, and I think I was very lucky to have the privilege to meet these players.
※ Shun, Nanaka, Toga, Noa, Yoichiro, Yusei
※ All Education Academy Yokohama branch, Yuka Matsuyama
Author: All Education Academy
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