By Spy Uganda Correspondent
Tokyo: The youngest competitor at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, 14-year-old Ugandan swimmer Husnah Kukundakwe, has set a personal best record.
Kukundakwe said she hoped her success would help change attitudes towards people with disabilities in her home country.
Kukundakwe failed to make the 100m breaststroke final after finishing sixth in her heat.
She said children born with disabilities in Uganda are often abandoned and hoped her participation in the Paralympics would encourage parents to support their children.
“I feel like I could touch the clouds. I’m the youngest here and just seeing how the others are doing, and just swimming with them is such an amazing experience,” she said.
The host nation Japan has won its first medal at the Tokyo Paralympics with teenage swimmer, Miyuki Yamada, securing silver in the 100-metre (S2) backstroke final.
The Games are being shown on free-to-air broadcast in 49 African territories thanks to an International Paralympic Committee initiative, and Kukundakwe hopes her race could have a transformative effect.
“Africa, in general, will learn that people with disabilities are just like normal people, and they need to do whatever they want to do,” said Kukundakwe.
Kukundakwe said babies born with disabilities in Uganda are often abandoned by their parents, and she hoped the Paralympics would make them realise “the choice they made was really bad”.
“Maybe giving these kids a chance, when they see that they’re different from other people and they realise that they want to do something, sport can help them raise their confidence,” she said.
Kukundakwe was born without her right forearm and also has an impairment to her left hand.
She used to cover them with a baggy sweater when she was at school, but swimming gave her the confidence to overcome her shyness.
