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original title: showing confidence and sunshine in adversity, 23-year-old hebei boy qu zimo said he would try to play in as many paralympics as possible

qu zimo: showing confidence and sunshine in adversity

on the evening of september 2, beijing time, in the men's singles wh1 final of the paris paralympic badminton event, chinese disabled athlete qu zimo from hebei defeated the no. 1 seed, 45-year-old korean veteran choi jung-wan, 2:0 to win the gold medal. prior to this, he and his teammate mai jianpeng defeated the korean combination zheng zaijian/yu xiurong in the men's doubles wh1-wh2 final and won the gold medal.

on september 1, mai jianpeng/qu zimo (left) in the competition. photo by xinhua news agency reporter xing guangli

for qu zimo, both finals were title defenses. the 23-year-old also achieved his wish of increasing his total paralympic gold medals to four - badminton became a paralympic event for the first time at the tokyo paralympic games three years ago, and in the history of the paralympic games, these two events have only produced four gold medals.

qu zimo is from quxizhang village, zhao county, shijiazhuang city. despite his physical disability, he did not bow to fate.

training for athletes is tough, and training for disabled athletes is even tougher. how to make a "strange" racket work like a finger is just the beginning. blisters on hands, sports injuries on wrists, falling off a wheelchair... these are all familiar to qu zimo.

the passion from the bottom of his heart made qu zimo persist. when blisters formed on his palms, he would bandage them and continue to practice; when he fell off his wheelchair, he would sit back on it with the help of his coach and teammates... he did everything just to stay on the badminton court, in this colorful new world.

neither qu zimo nor his coach qu fuchun from the national and provincial teams are willing to talk too much about these painful past events. qu fuchun said that they prefer to show the public their happy, confident and sunny side.

"qu zimo is the 'happy guy' in our team, he is quite naughty." speaking of happy stories, qu fuchun, who has coached qu zimo for 12 years, is quite interested.

no matter how tiring the training session was, qu zimo would complete it very seriously, but once the training session was over, he would immediately become the most noisy one in the team. sometimes, he would hit the badminton into the cardboard box next to him, and then point at the ball that penetrated the cardboard box to let his teammates see how strong his strength was; sometimes, he would serve the ball into the badminton tube and let his teammates guess how many balls he could hit.

"the team members are very tired during the training. qu zimo's 'jokes' often make everyone laugh and are very helpful in lightening the atmosphere," said qu fuchun.

the naughty qu zimo later became the captain of the provincial team. why?

"he not only brings joy to the team, but also plays well and has a broad perspective." this is how qu fuchun commented on qu zimo.

although he is naughty, qu zimo has a very high level of understanding in training. whether it is the initial wheelchair control, racket grip, or various techniques and tactics later, once qu fuchun tells him, he can quickly understand and do it. coupled with hard training, qu zimo has reaped a lot in his 12-year sports career - he has won many championships in domestic and international competitions such as the paralympic games, the para badminton world championships, the asian para games, and the national para games, and was also awarded the title of "best male athlete with disabilities in 2019" by the world badminton federation.

qu zimo said that his paralympic journey has just begun. "many high-level athletes in our event are very old. i will try to participate in more paralympic games and strive to win more gold medals for the country," he said. (hebei daily reporter wang weihong)