The Tokyo Paralympic Games is over half of the schedule. While the Chinese delegation is picking up gold and silver on the field, the audience is deeply moved by the inspirational stories of the disabled athletes.
In the blind football group match that ended today, the Chinese team defeated Japan 2-0 to advance to the semi-finals.
This group of invisible football players is making Chinese blind football more visible to the world.
In this game, the Chinese team’s starting lineup sent five people: Wu Limin, Liu Meng, Zhang Jiabin, Yu Yurong and Zhu Ruiming.
No. 11 player Zhu Ruiming takes a shot.
The rules of blind football are generally similar to that of futsal.
The difference is that in addition to the goalkeeper, the other four are all B1 blind players.
In order to prevent people from having the lowest level of perception of light, players must wear eye masks during the game to ensure fairness and justice in the game.
In the darkness, the blind athletes have to distinguish the position of the ball through the six sets of bells placed in the football, and the athletes should also make a "hey hey hey" sound to remind their opponents when defending.
In addition, blind football also requires goalkeepers, coaches and guides standing behind the opponent's goal to work together to direct the players on the field to play.
In the 12th minute of the first half of the match between the Chinese team and the Japanese team, Zhu Ruiming took the lead in breaking the deadlock for the Chinese team. In the 18th minute, he scored twice.
This is Zhu Ruiming's third goal in this Paralympic Games.
In the last game against France, he scored a winning goal for the Chinese team.
After the end of the group stage, the Chinese blind football team is getting closer and closer to the goal of the podium. They are eager to win a medal in Tokyo.
This confidence comes from their strong strength, but also from their hard training day after day.
The players are in the game.
How hard is it to play in the dark?
Volunteers have experienced this sport.
After putting on the blindfold, the sighted volunteers instantly lost their sense of direction.
The originally agile young man can only move small steps on the field, completely devoid of the former corrective skills.
In a dark world, if blind athletes want to stand on the green field, the first thing they must overcome is their inner fear. They must learn to run with the ball and shoot hard in the dark.
In an interview with the media, Zhang Jiabin, the captain of the Chinese blind foot team, said: "It's all black. You have to run. At the beginning, I was really scared and didn't dare to run with all my strength."
Data map: Blind athletes in a football match.
Photo by Chinanews reporter Li Jun
To solve the inner fear, it is also very difficult for the players to learn the skills under their feet.
Every technical action must be demonstrated by the coach, and the athletes can feel the power-generating part and the range of the action through touch.
Through such slow exploration and countless repetitions, China’s blind feet have already rushed out of Asia and into the world.
In 2008, when China participated in the Paralympic Games for the first time, China won the runner-up for its blind foot. Since then, it won the fifth and fourth place in the two Paralympics.
In addition, the Chinese team participated in the World Championships three times, won the third place twice, and once ranked fourth. In the Asian Championships and the Asian Paralympics, the Chinese team also won many championships.
Some people say that blind football is a sport for the brave.
In fierce confrontations, collisions, injuries, and bleeding among athletes are commonplace.
The scars on their bodies are medals of honor and witnesses of growth and transformation.
The goalkeeper saved the ball.
When preparing for the Rio Paralympic Games five years ago, Zhang Jiabin collided with a player during training, causing his eyeballs to rupture and bleeding. In the end, he had to undergo emergency surgery to remove the eyeballs.
In order not to worry the family, Zhang Jiabin did not tell his parents about the injury.
Except for this serious injury, his knees and forehead are not known how many times he has been knocked to pieces. Because of continuous bumps in the same position of his mouth, he can't open his mouth while eating.
Zhu Ruiming, who scored twice in the game against Japan, is a "post-00". He was in touch with football at the age of 11 and has played for the Shandong team many times.
His waist injury, nose injury, and ankle injury did not stop him from kicking the ball.
He sees all this as a gift from football.
Substitute Tang Zhihua has suffered injuries to his ankles, knees, and elbows. In the worst case, he lay down for 4 days; the goalkeeper can avoid collisions between his bodies, but because the ball has a built-in steel bell, it is much heavier than ordinary football, and they are often hit by the ball. It's blue and purple...
Data map: Blind athletes in the game.
Photo by Chinanews reporter Li Jun
In order to prepare for the Tokyo Paralympic Games, China has gone through a long period of closed training for blind feet.
When attending the training camp, the son of veteran Yu Yuyan had just been born, not for a few months. When he returned home, the child would have called his father.
During the long training period, everyone in the team is working hard for the same goal.
Now they are getting closer and closer to this goal.
These blind players did not lament the injustice of their lives, they still chase their dreams in the dark; they did not give up in a difficult situation, and interpret the spirit of self-improvement with every wonderful shot; they did not forget their responsibilities and missions and fight for the country. Get the honor and feel the "brightness" brought by football.
(Reporter Xing Rui)