This week, a Chinese Paralympian and double amputee who rediscovered how to “walk” with the help of a basketball proceeded to inspire her country by winning a national swim match.
Qian Hongyan, 25, made headlines for the first time more than 15 years ago when she was pictured sitting in a makeshift wheelchair built from half a basketball and moving around with wooden-handled paddles.
On Thursday, she was back on the front pages after winning a silver medal in the 100-meter breaststroke SB5 at China’s 11th National Games for Persons with Disabilities in Xi’an, in the northern province of Shaanxi. Her 1:51:96 time contributed to a long list of accomplishments.
At the age of four, Qian, from Lulling county in southwestern Yunnan province, was struck by a truck and lost both legs. Her grandfather ripped open a basketball and lined it with cotton before putting her inside to retrain her to walk.
It earned her the moniker “Basketball Girl,” and it sparked a nationwide campaign to help her underprivileged family and crowdfund her prosthetic limbs. She went to Beijing for treatment, and her narrative is credited with bringing attention to some of the country’s terrible living and educational conditions.
Qian joined a local swimming club for the disabled when he was 11 years old, in 2007. She astonished the public two years later when she won three gold medals at Yunnan’s ninth games for the disabled. She won one gold and two silvers at the National Games the following year.
The young Chinese swimmer competed in the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, where she finished ninth in the 100-meter breaststroke and did not proceed. Her emergence, on the other hand, earned her a new moniker: “Fish Girl.”
When she’s not swimming, Qian works at a desk job in Yunnan. She had planned to be a member of China’s swimming squad at the 2020 Summer Paralympics, which ended last month in Tokyo. She didn’t make the cut, but she made an impression along the road, finishing third in the 400-meter final at the 2019 Tianjin National Games.
On Thursday, the Chinese tabloid China Daily published photographs of Qian’s silver-medal swim, which has documented her “transition” from “Basketball Girl” to “Fish Girl” as the country has progressively emerged from poverty over the last two decades.
The 11th National Games for Persons with Disabilities and the 8th National Special Olympic Games were conducted simultaneously this year. Both events began on October 22 and will conclude on Thursday and Friday.