I'm Deaf, Transgender and Athletes January 28, 17:09

"I'm a deaf person and a transgender person. As a double minority athlete, I want to compete as I am," said

Minato Sato, a track and field pole vaulter.

Sato is a transgender person who is naturally deaf and has different mental and physical genders.

It may be a difficult life from the perspective of others.

Sato is aiming for a gold medal at the world championships that will be held this time, with the idea that "I want people who are hitting difficulties and walls to look forward through their own challenges". ..

(Yokohama Broadcasting Station photographer Yuma Torigoe)

Few athletes to publish

"There are people in society like me who are deaf and transgender. It's hard to see, but I want you to know that there are people like that."

Minato Sato, a candidate for the Deaflympics Japan national team ( twenty five).

It is one of the few active athletes in Japan who announces that they are transgender.

He is also a deaf person who is almost deaf by nature.

He holds the Japanese record for the women's pole vaulter and is expected to win the gold medal at the Deaflympics, which is said to be the Olympic Games for the hearing impaired in Brazil in December.

Born in an inaudible world

Sato has hardly heard both ears since he was born.

Still, it is said that deafness has been a daily routine since birth.

From an early age, he was an active child who ran around and played vigorously outside while communicating with the children in the neighborhood by gesturing.

Mr. Sato accepted that he was deaf naturally and grew up without feeling that it was a handicap.

However, as the grades went up after entering elementary school, the information written on the blackboard was no longer enough to keep up with the lessons.

When I was in the 5th grade of elementary school, I transferred to a deaf school that I wanted.

At Deaf School, I met people of the same generation who were deaf and learned that there is a "word" that conveys my feelings, "sign language."

I want to learn "sign language" and communicate with others.

Mr. Sato spent two years desperately learning sign language and acquired "words" that allow him to freely convey his feelings.

I want to escape from the bathroom

Mr. Sato was born as a woman and was named "Marino".

When I was in kindergarten, I thought, "I like boyish clothes. I like blue bags instead of red."

When I turned over the album when I was little, it changed from being dressed in pretty clothes to being a boy as I grew older.

Shichigosan also asked his mother to wear a suit for children.

Still, I spent my time thinking, "I wonder if I'm a manly girl."

However, when I become a junior high school student, as my body grows, I feel that it is difficult for me to live, saying, "I feel pain in being seen as a woman by the people around me. It is said that it has become.

Mr. Sato still vividly remembers the time when he felt the most uncomfortable feeling about his sexuality.

Mr. Sato

"When I was taking a bath on a school trip, everyone was having a good time talking in the bathtub, but I wanted to take a shower early and finish. I was full of feelings that I wanted to escape from this place immediately."

Life at a deaf school where I can finally convey my thoughts in my own words.

However, despite the small number of students, Mr. Sato could not confide his worries to anyone because he was worried that the relationships he had built would be destroyed.

I have stowed the "words" I finally found in my heart.

Encounter with pole vault with a different view of the world

For a long time, Mr. Sato had a struggle to live as a woman, but he couldn't tell the people around him and continued to suffer alone.

The turning point was the pole vault I met when I was in my second year of high school.

Sato who belonged to the track and field club at that time.

I tried various competitions such as sprinting, shot put, and javelin throw, but no results were obtained.

At that time, my adviser teacher recommended me, and the last thing I casually started was pole vaulting.

I worked hard on the practice and became absorbed in the charm of pole vaulting before I knew it.

Mr. Sato

"When I jumped higher than before, the view of the world was different from usual.

I felt

like my field of vision was expanding."

"The more I do pole vaulting, the more results I have felt. There was a sense of accomplishment

He continued to jump until the sun went down, and his talent blossomed in just one year of competition.

At the Deaf World Championships held in Bulgaria in the summer of his second year of high school, he broke his own record and won a silver medal.

"I can do more than I am happy with the silver medal. I feel like jumping higher."

The day you accepted yourself as you are

As a competitor, Sato has gained confidence that he has never experienced in his life.

However, there was still a mental conflict that never disappeared.

It was a sense of discomfort with my own sexuality that I had been worried about alone without being able to tell anyone.

I want to clarify the cause.

And from now on, I want an opportunity to live in my own way.

Mr. Sato decided to go to the hospital and was diagnosed with "gender identity disorder" in March of his third year of high school.

It was a moment when I was able to accept myself as I was, with a break in the discomfort I had had for many years.

Mr. Sato:

"I was convinced that I was transgender, and that was the case. It made me feel clear and radiant that I was worried."

Step into society as a transgender

After that, Sato went on to college.

While continuing the pole vault, I spent my usual life under the common name of Minato.

When I was in my fourth year of college, I had surgery to remove the bulge in my chest.

After graduating from university, I changed the family register name from "Marino" to "Minato" so that people I met for the first time could see me as a man.

In 2018, I got a job at a company with an athlete quota and decided to work publicly as a transgender athlete.

I wanted to convey by standing on the front stage as a competitor that "there are minorities like myself in the world. There are people who have difficulty living because of that."

The goal was to win a gold medal at the 2021 World Championships.

He has been practicing steadily, recording "3 meters 6" and breaking the Japanese record, and has lived a good life as a player.

With the invisible corona

At that moment, the new coronavirus became a pandemic all over the world.

The pole vault practice facility has been closed, allowing you to practice pole vaulting five days a week only once every two months.

Sato, who is deaf, cannot time with his footsteps.

Up until now, I have been able to improve my record by instilling my senses in my body by repeatedly jumping.

However, now that I have been unable to practice as I expected for almost a year, my record is sluggish.

Even in such an environment, Sato is positive about the current situation.

I continue to work silently on what I can do now, such as strength training, running, and jumping image training that I haven't done before.

Mr. Sato:

"I have never resented or blamed anyone for hearing loss or transgender. I have lived by accepting everything under any circumstances. Corona is the same. Players from all over the world I'm running into the same difficulty. I'll never give up. "

Make use of my own experience

Sato is actively engaged in exchanges through lectures and SNS, even though he cannot practice the competition as he wishes.

I hope that the understanding of society will deepen by letting people know about their experiences and conflicts of living as Deaf people and transgender.

The activity has spread, and people who have troubles alone, like myself, have come to consult with me.

"I can't tell my parents or anyone about my sexual discomfort."

"I'm worried about femininity such as makeup and clothes in my job hunting."

More recently,

I've been

asked to give lectures at school.

In mid-January, Sato gave a special lecture online at his alma mater, Yokohama National University.

He talked about his experiences and his thoughts as a transgender athlete for students who dream of working in the field of education in the future.

Mr. Sato

"There are still a few sexual minority athletes like me among Japanese athletes, but the current situation is that they can't speak up. Everyone can naturally accept minority people. I want you to become a friendly society. "

" I want you to deepen your understanding of society so that everyone can engage in sports in their own way, taking advantage of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, which attract the attention of the world. "

Aiming for the top of the world in conflict

Now, Sato is spending his daily life as a man.

However, since she is a woman on the family register, she will participate in the world championships as a female player.

In order to participate as a male athlete, there are many issues that must be overcome, such as hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery.

Mr. Sato

"It's a complicated feeling that I'm sacrificing my identity to continue the competition. But it's unavoidable. That's why I want to keep an overwhelmingly good record and win a gold medal."

Sato has recently begun to make a strong wish.

"Hearing impaired and transgender. I want to create an opportunity for everyone to live in their own way by succeeding as an

athlete." Sato calls himself a "double minority."

A figure that never hides himself, accepts it as it is, and aims for the top of the world.

It feels like it is appealing to all of us, whether they are disabled or able-bodied.

Yokohama Broadcasting Station Photographer

Yuma Torigoe

Joined in

2011

After working in Wakayama and Osaka, covered a wide range of topics such as incumbent sports and mountain topics.