看她擲鐵餅的英姿，使我想起讀書時候也參與過的運動，有一次練習時，鐵餅在安全網角破網而出，幾乎擊中在跑道上賽跑的人。那時候登山涉水，除了讀書，無所不為。往事如煙似霧，玩得精彩，荒棄了讀好書做點學問的機會。看到這小妮子的奮鬥，事在人為，給我無限鼓勵，受挫折的朋友，一起為她站起來鼓掌，也為自己的目標奮進。
After a terrible trauma, Joany Badenhorst finds her feet in Winter Paralympics team
In 2005 she lost a leg. Now Joany Badenhorst is a Paralympics snowboarding hopeful, writes David Sygall.
Snowboarder Joany Badenhorst is heading to Russia to compete in the 2013 Paralympic Winter Games. Photo: James Brickwood
There are moments when Joany Badenhorst struggles to accept what happened. Tears flow when she is overcome. Yet her regret is not the gruesome near-fatal trauma she endured, it's that people she loves so deeply witnessed it.
''My brothers, cousins, one of my dad's friends, my nan and pop were there,'' she says of that day, back in her native South Africa, when she was just 10. ''I'm OK but it's impacted my family in a horrible way. The memories - you never get something like that out of your head. That's what upsets me the most. I can't imagine what they've gone through.''
The family never let on about the way the amputation affected them, the engaging teenager says.
A younger Joany Badenhorst competes in athletics.
Her mother Petro quit her teaching job to care for her. Her architect father Peter brought the family to Australia, largely to get the best medical attention. And brothers Garret and Peter helped at every turn.
''They've been like a rock for me. I'm sure they all struggled, but they never let me know. They love me.''
Early next year, however, there may be no hiding emotion, when Badenhorst, now 19, competes in front of the world.
Joany Badenhorst snowboards through Perisher Valley. Photo: Altitude Images
On Saturday she leaves with several of Australia's winter Paralympics hopefuls for the northern season and will compete and train in the Netherlands, US and Austria.
All going well, she will be in Sochi, Russia, for the Winter Games, where she will be among Australia's first competitors in the newly-added sport of para-snowboard.
It is a grand achievement in Badenhorst's whirlwind life since the day everything was turned upside down.
It happened amid ''the most cheesy, amazing childhood'', she says, on a hobby farm 300 kilometres from Bloemfontein in central South Africa. Badenhorst competed in dancing and athletics, but loved being home, where the kids rode horses and bikes, played in the cubby-house and swam in the river.
July 12, 2005, was a regular day. The kids played as Peter and a farmhand back-burned, using a tractor power take-off to pump water on the flames. During a break, Badenhorst leant on the plough. When the farmhand restarted the engine, it caught her leg and ripped it off below the knee.
''I got a cold shock through my body,'' she says. ''I looked down and saw blood everywhere. I was just screaming.''
Petro kept talking to keep her daughter awake as they waited for help. The ambulance couldn't get through the terrain, so they drove to a neighbour's air strip, where a mercy flight picked her up. ''I remember the medics on the flight saying aloud that they didn't think I would make it,'' she says.
After nine hours of surgery, Badenhorst woke to begin her new life. ''It all seemed dreamlike,'' she says, shaking her head. ''I just remember being so thirsty.''
There were setbacks in the ensuing months and years. But Badenhorst's determination was unstoppable. After attending school in a wheelchair or on crutches, she got a prosthetic leg and came second in the school 100 metres event. She joined the South African Paralympic program and competed at the 2009 Paralympic Youth Games.
''It was never about gold medals,'' she says. ''I just wanted to keep up with my friends.''
When she moved to Australia four years ago, she narrowly missed qualifying for the London Games. But her skills were seen by snowboarding coach Peter Higgins as transferable to the snow.
''He asked if I'd be interested in joining winter sports. I said yes straight away,'' she says.
Just months later, Badenhorst finds herself on the cusp of a wonderful experience.
''I've got those moments still where I can't believe what happened to me, losing my leg like that, and I start crying,'' she says. ''But, I don't know, I never thought my life was over or anything. The support that I had was amazing and, great things have happened. I think it's been a blessing in disguise. I really wouldn't change anything.''
這樣的一篇報導也可以和抵抗強權不公義拉上關係，標少的文采真係非一般人可比擬
回覆刪除可以和舞文弄墨，矯情呻吟的人比。有些爬格子的就是這樣賺錢，跟扒手一樣，我沒錢賺，算是扒手做義工，睇開啲喇。
刪除哈哈哈哈哈! 標少真風趣 !
回覆刪除