BEIJING -- "Life is like never-ending Olympic Games," said 47-year-old Ping Yali, China's first Paralympic champion, who summed up her understanding about life on Thursday.
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Ping Yali, who was China's first Paralympics gold medallist, carries the flame at the National Stadium during the opening ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games in the Chinese capital on September 6, 2008. [Agencies]
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Together with her guide dog "Lucky", the well-groomed Ping, who was invited as an image ambassador for the Beijing Paralympics, showed up in the Main Press Center and shared her story with others in a down-to-earth manner.
Ping, who suffered congenital cataract and lost mother love at an early age, drew public attention after winning China's first Paralympic gold at the B2 long jump in the 7th Paralympic Games in the United States in 1984,
"My mother was diagnosed cancer when I was eight and I never forget the scene that she died with her eyes open because she was worried too much about her daughter's future. The scene always triggers me to train and work hard," Ping recalled.
Her father, an army man, vowed to make his daughter well-educated despite her vision impairment.
Ping was brought to a school for the vision impaired. One day, when she played on the playground, her talent in sprint touched the nerve of her PE teacher and since then she started her sporting career.
Ping entered the national disabled athletics team in 1982 and won gold in B2 long jump with 4.28 meters in 1984 Paralympic Games. In 1986, she was crowned in 100- and 400-meter races and long jump at the Fourth Far South Games.
"I try my best to triumph, so as to bring more social attention and fund to the sports for the disabled at the early stage of China's reform and opening up when the social care to the disabled could not be compared with that of today," Ping said.
Ping decided to retire in 1988 to take full care of her son who unfortunately also suffers inborn vision impairment.
After working in a factory for more than ten years, Ping turned out to be unemployed in 1999, as the factory was poorly managed.
At that moment, Ping was so frustrated that she dared not to considerate her and her son's future.
"But life is like never-ending Olympic Games. I must be always in high spirit and drive myself to work hard in other arena for my son," Ping said emotionally.
Thanks for the experience that she once learnt some massage skills in school, she opened a massage center in her home in 1999 and earned surprising 2,000 yuan in the first-month operation.
Due to lack of market analysis, Ping's massage business experienced ups and downs in the past ten years, but finally she pulled through.
Now, Ping boasts three massage shops in Beijing and is planning to open two more after the Beijing Paralympic Games.
