About Almountakhab Moroccan newspaper-Written by: Badr Al-Din Al-Idrisi
They walk in darkness, without boredom or weariness..
The media wrongs them and only mentions the slightest news about them, and yet they raise their heads, defy disabilities and ascend like towering giants to the peaks. Those are the people of determination, who placed Morocco in 31st place globally in the list of medal winners in the Paralympics that ended yesterday, Sunday, in Paris, after they won 15 medals, three of which shine on their chests with the brilliance of gold.
It is a record and unprecedented tally for special needs sports in the Paralympic event, as Morocco’s tally of medals increased by four medals compared to the Tokyo 2020 tournament, even if our tally of gold medals decreased by one medal, and to be honest, the balance of shiny gold would have increased a little, if the champion Abdel-Ilah Kani had not had the gold medal for the shot put competition taken from his chest.
When one of us follows these people who challenge disabilities, whether mental or physical, he discovers a new definition of heroism. If some normal heroes are superhumans, due to the mythical levels they reach, then all athletes with disabilities are heroes. You can read in their eyes the letters of challenge and see in their features that endless passion for conquering disability, whatever its form and content. Therefore, congratulations to all Moroccan heroes who have reserved seats for themselves on the Paralympic stage, and who have conquered all forms of disability within themselves, to be fierce competitors for the ranks of honor. If those who won medals were classified among the superhumans due to the wonderful numbers they achieved, then those whose circumstances prevented them from reaching the podium, fought hard to reach advanced levels in the competition, and some of them came in the positions that come directly after those that grant their owners medals of the three metals. Without the need to make comparisons between two Olympic seasons held in the French capital, Paris, the sport of people with special needs has once again succeeded in its global test, and success here is measured by the size of the sacrifices and the size of the potential allocated to this sport, and the diminished size of the media interest. This success must be rewarded, first by acknowledging and recognizing that the sport of people with special needs was much better than its counterpart, the sport of people with normal abilities, in embodying the spirit of the national strategy on sports, as evidenced by the fact that its harvest of medals in the Paralympics and in the World Championships, is growing cycle after cycle. Second, that the sport of people with disabilities receives more financial and logistical support, to maintain its global and Paralympic luster, as the renewed demand to put sports at the forefront of the priorities of our development model that the world praises, imposes our appreciation for this bright face of the sport of people with disabilities, to give it all the capabilities to remain lofty at the summits.
