Man Without Arms Wins 4 Golds at Paralympics in Swimming Competition, Tells Daughter He Made It With

May 2024 · 3 minute read

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A man without arms, Zheng Tao, has dominated the Paralympic swimming games going on in Tokyo as he won a total number of four golds.

BBC reports that after winning the medals at the contest, he told his daughter in a video message:

“Daughter, look at me - I can swim so fast even though I don’t have arms!”

No regrets

The man dominated in areas like freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly even though he lost both his arms to an electric shock as a child.

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After his win on Wednesday, September 1, the man said he gave the competition his best shot and there were no regrets.

A world record set

The same media gathered that to prepare for the competition, the man had to swim at least 10km daily. It should be noted that the 30-year-old man started swimming at the young teenage age of 13.

Zheng has so far won a total number of nine Paralympic medals in his career as a professional swimmer. Daily Mail reports that the man set a record in the 50m backstroke contest on Monday, August 30.

He is an inspiration

Below are some of the reactions his post got when it was posted on Instagram:

a.yxx2006 said:

"Incredible. May God bless him. He is amazing. He has superhuman power."

jaquelinacarinafortes said:

"Zheng Tao you are great."

officer_125yt said:

"Just wow it’s all in the mind you can do anything if you put your mind to it."

solitude._.spirit said:

"If you think you are useless just think about this guy."

joeycmh said:

"Meanwhile, I can’t even swim for 10meters lol."

iamgauravrawat14 said:

"This guy inspires so many people."

samuel_surmik said:

"Now with all seriousness, how'd he do the butterfly and also, perhaps the backstroke. Do you not need hand for those?"

Another talented athlete

Meanwhile, Briefly News earlier reported that Ibrahim Hamadtou who lost both his arms in an accident when he was 10 years old was another athlete at the competition that caught people's attention.

To compete and mesmerize the audience at the competition, the man had trained his mouth to serve as his hands for the table tennis sport.

During the game, he took the opponent’s service with the use of his mouth. To serve, he used his leg to launch the ball forward.

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