The majority of the handicapped never have had the chance to participate in phys-ed class. They have never known what it is to wipe the sweat from one's brow in the midst of strenuous physical activity.

Chen Pao-yuan, who lost his hands when he suffered a high-voltage electric shock at the age of twelve, only had one duty during phys-ed class--guarding the classroom. And, except for those handicapped people accepted for rehabilitation and treatment by the Chang Hua Jen Ai Experimental Primary School and the Chen-Hsing Rehabilitation Medical Center, most handicapped youngsters meet with the same sort of experience as Chen.

Huang Chin-tsuan, whose movement is impaired in both legs, is the current psychological counselor at the Chen-Hsing Rehabilitation Medical Center. He says that he has loved athletics ever since childhood, but that when he was stricken by infantile paralysis in grade school, "Phys-ed turned into a cheerless class where I could only clap for everyone else and sigh to myself."

There is a difference now, though. Huang is leading a group of handicapped athletes to train in preparation for the "Paralympics" to be held in 1992 in Barcelona.

Competing in the International Paralympics: The first Paralympics took place in Rome in 1960; the 1992 Ninth Paralympics is scheduled to take place in Barcelona, Spain, at the end of August. This will be the first year that ROC athletes will participate. In order to scrape together the necessary funds, the ROC Paralympic Athletes Association has sponsored a series of "Push On to Barcelona" activities, which have included last November's "Handicapped but not Invalid Sun-Moon Lake Crossing," late December's "500K South-North Wheelchair Marathon," and this February's "Spain Sunshine Benefit Dinner."

Among all these events, the one that aroused the greatest interest was the inaugural running of the wheelchair marathon, which lasted nine days and covered half of Taiwan. In their race from Kenting to Taipei, the twelve selected athletes left a deep impression on spectators with their obliviousness to the elements and with their extraordinary strength and endurance. Because of the race, the people of Taiwan know and care about "paralympic athletics" for the first time.

Ho Mao-sung, secretary general of the China Paralympic Athletic Association (CPAA), says happily, "A lot of people called in to the CPAA to express their willingness to volunteer. In the future we should be adding on many fresh new activists."

In the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics, the ROC has chosen to participate only in those events which are particularly well developed here in Taiwan, including track and field, swimming, table tennis, pool, cerebral palsy tricycling, and blind judo. Wheelchair basketball is also fairly well developed in Taiwan, but because Taiwan did not participate in this event in the Asian Games, it is unfortunately not qualified to enter in the Olympics either.

Why Make Them Suffer So?: But many people feel a bit uncomfortable with the idea of paralympic athletics. Last December, a spectator in her fifties was so moved watching the 500K wheelchair marathon competition that she tearfully asked the following question to team coach Wang Wan-chun: "They're so pitiful already, why make them suffer so?"

If your body is already disabled, why exercise? If you take a trip to the Chen-Hsing RehabilitatioMedical Center, you will find the answers to all such doubts.

Twenty-one-year-old Huang Hsi-hua graduated last year from the Taiwan Normal University High School. In eighth grade he suffered an injury to his neck vertebrate which impaired his capabilities from the neck down. He has great difficulty writing, so that when he took the Joint Entrance Exams last year, his poor performance on the Chinese language and Three Principles of the People sections, which require writing, caused him not to pass the test despite his excellent scores in the other sections. From then on he was a daily visitor to Chen-Hsing, where he swam and underwent rehabilitation. He says, "I want to strengthen my body first, since health is what's most important."

If they are to preserve their health and prevent "second degree disability," it is essential that the handicapped undergo rehabilitation and an appropriate amount of exercise.

Chen-Hsing physical therapist and CPAA assistant secretary-general Wu Er-mo says, "If exercise and good health are important to the ordinary person, then they are even more important to the handicapped person."

Exercise: The Stepping Stone to Rehabilitation: Taking sufferers from infantile paralysis as an example, Wu says that if no rehabilitation treatment is administered, lower limbs are too weak to support the body and normal walking is impossible. Excessive joint friction, ineffectual muscles, and numbness are common consequences, resulting in "second-degree disability." Some cerebral palsy victims sometimes reach the point where their entire bodies need rehabilitative treatment, Wu explains. Swimming and wheelchair sports are the most beneficial to the cardio-vascular system.

From administering rehabilitation therapy to promoting activities for the handicapped, the Chen-Hsing Rehabilitation Medical Center has, under the leadership of Wu Er-mo and others, become the home camp of paralympic athletics and the cradle of top athletes. Moreover, last March the Center established the "Wu Shu Wheelchair Club" to prepare athletes interested in training for wheelchair competition.

In addition to providing physical rehabilitation, the Center also plays a prominent part in giving psychological assistance to the handicapped.

"To find something, go to where it is you lost it," says eight-year Chen-hsing psychological counselor Huang Ch'in-tsuan, "because when bodily disability has caused you to lose confidence and happiness, you must rebuild these things through bodily activity."

He says that the disabled think every day about their own damaged bodies. It is hard not to feel inferior. "After they begin to participate in athletics, they begin to notice other bodily capabilities and discover that there are still parts of them, still certain muscles, which they can use. Eventually, they regain self-confidence through the constant break-throughs they make and the challenges they give themselves."

Clumsy on Land, Graceful in the Water: Paralympic table tennis star Hsiao Shu-ch'ing says that table tennis inspired her with a desire to win and a will to fight: "When I'm playing I'm a fierce competitor--not at all feminine." She says that the best thing about table tennis is that it allows her to forget all her troubles: "In the past I used to hate it when people said I was 'crippled,' but now I can even make jokes about it myself."

The handicapped are comparatively free of psychological barriers when it comes to basketball, table tennis, etc. All they have to do is practice patiently and they are sure to get the knack of it. Even those whose movement is limited by their confinement to wheelchairs can participate. Only swimming presents particular difficulties--and more mental barriers--to the handicapped.

"Just walking on dry land is hard enough--I thought I'd sink right to the bottom in water." Liao Min-hsiu was so afraid going into the water the first time that she thought she even felt her heart trembling.

Stricken in both legs by infantile paralysis and suffering from a curved spine, Liao can only use her hands to propel herself through the water, greatly improving her speed and sense of balance. Nonetheless, she learned step by step how to hold her breath, stroke, exhale and inhale again, etc., until now she knows the butterfly stroke and backstroke. She is like a fish in the water now, although, as she says self-deprecatingly, "This butterfly is a little bit abnormal!"

Confidence from Sweat: From the many handicapped people he has seen who have entered the Chen-Hsing Center discouraged and downcast and found new goals through exercise and rehabilitation, Huang Chin-tsuan believes that encouraging the disabled to take up sports is perhaps even more important than guaranteeing them employment opportunities "because confidence is the foundation of everything else," he says earnestly.

But services for the handicapped in Taiwan remain at the stage of caring for only their most basic needs, while such matters as guaranteeing employment, providing barrier-free buildings, and even providing exercise facilities have long been neglected. This has meant an extremely difficult set of circumstances blocking the way of paralympic athletics.

Huang became involved with table tennis because of the illness of a classmate. He laughs, "I had a high school classmate who was on the school table tennis team. One day he had a bad cold and couldn't go in the water during swimming class, so he taught me table tennis to pass the time." From then on his life was inextricably bound together with the sport.

Hsiao Shu-ching didn't come into contact with table tennis until she entered Fu Jen Catholic University and joined its handicapped students association. However, she stopped playing again after graduation. Then, she says, "One day on the way home from work I was feeling real depressed when I suddenly saw a poster for 'Mentally and Physically Retarded Citizens' Self-Help Activities.' I was elated, and on the spot bought a paddle and signed up." During the activity she found out about the newly established Taipei Sunward Table Tennis Society for the handicapped, which to this day meets for games every Monday evening.

Just How Many Handicapped Citizens Are There? However, there are many more handicapped people who remain hidden away at home. The Ministry of the Interior estimates, according to its handicapped persons' handbook, that there are about 200,000 handicapped people in Taiwan. However, the Eden Handicapped Foundation has produced a different estimate based on the ratio of handicapped people to total population in developing countries (five per hundred), saying there are about 900,000 to 1,000,000 in Taiwan.

But whether the figure is 200,000 or 800,000, the fact still remains that the number of these people who are athletes is vanishingly small. According to CPAA Secretary-General Ho Mao-sung's estimates, there are only about 1000 disabled athletes in Taiwan today, and most of these are victims of cerebral palsy.

"Insufficient financial and human resources are the reason why handicapped athletics has never been popularized in this country," says Ho Mao-sung. The CPAA was established seven years ago, but it only has made annual expenditures of NT$100,000 (NT$200,000 this year), and the amount its volunteer director, secretary-general, and assistant secretary-general are able to accomplish is limited.

Wu Er-mo goes further: "Taiwan does not have even a semblance of a regional paralympic games." He believes that the Mentally and Physically Retarded Citizens' Self-Help Activities conducted in turn every other year by each local government's department of education is at best good for a little fun and excitement!

Because of a lack of expert knowledge, the Mentally and Physically Retarded Citizens' Self-Help Activities sometimes have physical competition events that are very poorly designed, generating concern that participants may be injured. By way of example, Huang mentions the walking-staff-assisted footrace for people with lower-limb disabilities. He claims the event is extremely unreasonable: "Most of them have great difficulty even walking with a stick, much less running." He adds that international competitions have only wheelchair races--he has never seen one to have a walking stick race.

The First Step Toward Success: Levels of expertise are low, and there are too few opportunities to compete. Most handicapped physical activities are conducted by private groups and associations, such as the Sunward Table Tennis Association's "Sunward Cup Table Tennis Competition," the Kaohsiung Hsin Chiao Handicapped Benevolent Association's "Hsin Chiao Cup Table Tennis Competition" and the Kaohsiung Municipal Disabled Service Association's "Self-Help Cup Wheelchair Basketball Competition."

　"There can only be progress if there is competition, but with just these same few teams and people always playing each other in Taiwan, no one's thirst for competition is really satisfied," Kaohsiung Municipal Disabled Service Association head Hsu Ming-fa says with a smile.

In light of this, the CPAA began actively making contact three years ago with the international paralympics organization, resulting in the giant step forward in 1990 where the group led selected athletes to Kobe, Japan, to participate in the Fifth FESPIC games (Far East Asia South Pacific games).

Even though the Taiwan delegation only participated in track and field, swimming, the wheel-chair marathon, and the blind judo events, and was inexperienced and insufficiently prepared, it stilled unexpectedly garnered three gold medals, five silver medals and six bronze medals.

Their experience in the competition encouraged the participants, showing them that they had a chance to win glory for their country on the field of athletic competition. The CPAA, learned a lot from observing Japan's handicapped athletics. In particular, it discovered that the ROC has great room for improvement in all areas of paralympic athletics.

A Moving Competition: Huang Chin-tsuan, who led the team to Japan, notes the vigor of Japan's paralympic athletics program, with its organizations and centers spread out all over the country. Their volunteers are thickly distributed and knowledgeable. Huang says enviously, "Even more importantly, regular school phys-ed teachers are prepared with knowledge about the physical education needs of the handicapped, so that disabled students, under the appropriate care, can participate in phys-ed class."

Because the concept was introduced early in Japan, the people there put a much higher emphasis on paralympic athletics than people do in Taiwan. Huang says, "In the region where the competition was held, a holiday was proclaimed for the entire province and the public came out of their own accord to spectate and cheer on the competitors."

Team coach Wang Wan-hua was especially impressed by this. "During wheelchair races the most feared thing is running into little stones, which can puncture the wheels. But during the day of the competition, the public was out there practically wiping the road clean with their own handkerchiefs so that we could safely ride through." Gratitude is in Wang's voice. He says that in comparison, people in Taiwan are too unfamiliar with paralympic athletics: "During the wheelchair road race in Taiwan, trucks would come roaring right by the competitors, raising up gusts of wind and clouds of dust that covered the road. Probably just about no one was aware that wheelchairs don't have brakes, meaning that the rider must use his or her own hands to stop the vehicle!"

But at least a start has been made. After a long struggle, the CPAA got handicapped athletics included in the special education category of the Six-Year National Development Plan. "In the future, expenses for teacher education and rehabilitation/athletic facilities will no longer be a problem," says Ho Mao-sung excitedly. He is currently hoping for the building of a paralympic gymnasium.

Funds + Caring = Success: In addition to greater funds, handicapped athletes need the involvement and caring of all members of society. "In addition to the services of physical therapists, rehabilitation physicians, psychological counselors, special educators, volunteers, and coaches, handicapped people need the support of society at large," says Huang sincerely. "Paralympic athletics not only has crucial significance for the handicapped, but it also has an inspirational effect on society as a whole."

A tear trickles down Chi Cheng's face after she watches a videotape of the Seoul Handicapped Olympics. Moved, she asks, "Could you give me a copy of that? When the regular athletes are goofing off, I'd like to show this to them."

Taiwan's Paralympic Trials are scheduled to take place at the end of March. Some of the hopefuls have already quit their jobs to concentrate on training. In order to facilitate training, wheelchair marathoners Chung Meng-hung, Wang Ju-ken, and Fang Fu-sheng have quit their jobs and rented an apartment together in the vicinity of the Chen-Hsing Rehabilitation Medical Center. In the mornings they go there to swim and increase their strength, while in the afternoons they do laps around the facility. In response to a question, the three of them rush to be first to reply, "Even though this doesn't mean we'll make the team for sure, extra training definitely can't hurt."

In order to seize the only female spot on the table tennis team, Hsiao Shu-ching has hired a coach at her own expense to instruct her. Despite the fact that she is currently national champion in the no-walking-staff category, she is still afraid that her skill will abandon her in the trials.

All over the country, handicapped athletes take this rare opportunity very seriously. They are devoting their utmost energies to training, and when the time comes, competition is sure to be fierce. And finally, the CPAA is making every effort to provide them with the equipment and training funds they need. However, it is only with your support that their wishes can be truly fulfilled in the end.

[Picture Caption]

"The 500K South-North Wheelchair Marathon" puts strength and stamina to the test. Coach Wu Er-mo cheers participants along the way. (photo by Wang Tsung-tse)

A wheelchair flat along the course forces a pit stop and change of tire. (photo by Wang Tsung-tse)

Wheelchair athletics is good cardio-vascular exercise. (photo by Wang Tsung-tse)

"Sports are an extension of therapy," say Wu Er-mo. "Someone in a wheelchair, for example, needs exercise even more than the average person." (photo by Arthur Cheng)

Challenging one's body to the limit. (photo by Arthur Cheng)

As it is much easier to gain access to tables and paddles, this sport is particularly popular.

Starting with lessons on how to hold the breath, physical therapists teach swimming.

While it is more arduous to go forth on crutches, one can still go the distance with dignity and have fun doing it.

"Sports bring out confidence and laughter," says counsellor Huang Chin-tsuan.

A wheelchair flat along the course forces a pit stop and change of tire. （photo by Wang Tsung-tse）

Wheelchair athletics is good cardio-vascular exercise. （photo by Wang Tsung-tse）

"Sports are an extension of therapy," say Wu Er-mo. "Someone in a wheelchair, for example, needs exercise even more than the average person." （photo by Arthur Cheng）

Challenging one's body to the limit. （photo by Arthur Cheng）

As it is much easier to gain access to tables and paddles, this sport is particularly popular.

Starting with lessons on how to hold the breath, physical therapists teach swimming.