Cheering with All My Might; My Favorite Athlete | Yuko Takeda, Dean, Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care
2021.08.31
The Paralympics have begun. There is an athlete I'm a huge fan of, and I was hoping to watch and cheer for him in person at the Games in Japan. He is Takayuki Suzuki , the captain of the para swimming team, who is making his fifth consecutive Paralympic appearance since the 2004 Athens Games and has won four medals to date (one gold, one silver, and two bronze).
He has impressive thick eyebrows and eyes that show a clear strength of will. When he was little, he reminded me of the folk hero Kintaro, but now at 34, he has grown a beard and has the strong, chiseled features of an Arabian prince. Although he missed out on a medal in Rio, he won five gold medals at the 2018 Asian Para Games and four silver and one bronze at the 2019 World Championships in London, and was set to enter the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics on an upward trend. Then came the global spread of COVID-19, and the Games were postponed. Brushing aside my unnecessary worries about how he would maintain his form given his age, he trained hard at his base in Newcastle, UK, and qualified for the Games by meeting the criteria at the 2021 selection trials.
His biggest cheering squad is his family. His whole family, including his grandmother who turns 87 this year, travels abroad to cheer him on. His spectacular achievement at the 2018 Asian Para Games in Jakarta was perhaps thanks to his grandmother's powerful support (?). I can only imagine how much they were looking forward to the Games finally being held in Japan, but this time they will be watching on TV. And we, friends of the family, are the "second cheering squad," getting excited for every competition. Para-competitions held overseas are rarely broadcast live on TV, so we ride an emotional rollercoaster with every social media update from friends. During that time, information about online streams of the events flies around on social media, building excitement. His swimming is breathtaking. The moment he dives smoothly into the water, he accelerates with incredible propulsive force. A TV commentator explained that this is due to the movement of his well-trained core, and while it's true that fish don't swim with hands or feet, I can't help but be drawn in by the power and speed of his swimming, which makes you forget his limb deficiencies. He is just so cool!!
At a friend's house, we've held Christmas parties and firework-viewing parties once or twice a year. Centered around friends from university and including their families, more than 20 people sometimes gather. I remember when Suzuki attended, the children would flock around him, running after his wheelchair. He is a top athlete and also a very charming young man. We don't get to see him often, but when I talk with him, I often get a sense of his approach to life—taking action on his own while being interested in various things and paving his own way—and his feelings for his family. During the current COVID-19 pandemic, there was a period when he was stuck and unable to return to his base in the UK, but amazingly, he tried his hand at a stringed instrument called the "Ichigo Ichie" and learned to play it beautifully. His skill is such that my husband, who has been playing the guitar since his university days, laments, "I've been playing for over 40 years..."
With the opening of the Paralympics, I received an email from a friend who said, "Given the government's lack of action, I'm against holding the Olympics and Paralympics, but I'm cheering for the athletes with all my might! It's a complicated stance." Yes, and perhaps the athlete himself has the most complicated feelings of all. With his rivals, such as Zhdanov from Russia, Dadaon from Israel, and Morelli from Italy, also in Japan, I want to cheer for him with all my might!!
(Competing in: August 25, 50m Breaststroke SB3; August 26, 100m Freestyle S4; August 28, 150m Individual Medley SM4; August 30, 200m Freestyle S4; September 2, 50m Freestyle S4)
*This article was written as of August 24.