OlymPicks: Zhang Haidi, Advocate for the Disabled, Nominated Potential President of International Paralympic Committee
OlymPicks is an ongoing blog series whereby we highlight news, gossip, and developments regarding the buildup to Beijing's 2022 Winter Olympics.
She's been called the Helen Keller of China – a paraplegic since childhood who rose above her circumstances to become an advocate for the disabled, as well as a national icon and role model.
Zhang Haidi, the Chairperson of China Disabled Persons' Federation (CDPF), hails from Jinan, Shandong. Her biography details the blood and spinal issues that lead to her undergoing half a dozen major operations before she was even five years old, resulting in the paralysis of her lower body. At the time – the mid 1950s – such a condition kept her from attending school.
Despite that massive setback, Zhang excelled at academics, teaching herself English, German, Japanese, and graduating from Jilin University in 1993. The Chinese Communist Party, which had been looking for a role model that could speak at various functions for the nation's youth, coordinated various high profile campaigns that promoted her story and lead to her traveling the country. After that Zhang become well known as an inspirational orator across the nation. You can read more about her moving life story here.
Surely many of China's paralympians looked to Zhang as an empowering success story during their own trying times. She will be one of four candidates looking to take on the role of IPC president, according to state media, which says Canadian Patrick Jarvis, Brazilian Andrew Parsons and John Petersson of Denmark are also in the running. An election will be held on Sept 8 at the IPC General Assembly in Abu Dhabi.
Anyone looking for further empowering sports news should look no further than this article about plans to balance gender participation at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. “I am delighted that the Olympic Games in Tokyo will be more youthful, more urban, and will include more women,” IOC President Thomas Bach said, before announcing that women will account for 48.8 percent of the athletes in Tokyo. On top of those changes, trendy sports like 3-on-3 basketball will be added to the schedule.
Hopefully all of that is a strong indication of progress ahead of Beijing's 2022 hosting of the Winter Games, leaving onlookers to speculate and anticipate what new sports and – more importantly – what further inclusionary practices will be added to help better develop the Olympics.
More stories by this author here.
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Photo: China Daily
