Last Sunday, the curtain came down on the Paralympic Games in the Japanese capital, Tokyo, but the stories of its heroes did not end, including the story of the American swimmer Haven Shepherd, which is suitable for a movie because of its cruelty and strangeness.
Shepherd was only 14 months old when her parents hugged her and detonated a bomb in her body in 2004 in a family suicide attempt in Vietnam, but she narrowly escaped death after her legs were amputated, becoming a Paralympic champion.
"I don't remember what happened. I just lost my leg, I could have lost my life," Shepherd, who uses metal prosthetic legs to walk, told People a few days ago.
Her parents died instantly as a result of the bomb explosion, but the baby who miraculously survived wrote her a new life in America 6 months after losing her biological parents, after Shelley and Rob Shepherd adopted her, and gave her a new family with 4 sisters and two brothers and a better life.
Haven Shepherd lost her legs as a baby in Vietnam when her parents tried to blow up themselves and her in a family suicide.
Now she's on a path that could lead to a spot on the US Paralympic swim team in 2020.
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"I'm so grateful to them for saving me," says Shepherd, 18. "My (new) parents gave me the world. I always joked with my siblings, telling them I'm the miracle girl, my mum and dad's favourite. Humor and optimism are their hallmarks."
Shepherd points out that she feels free in the water because she is freed from her artificial legs, which made her strive to achieve the qualification numbers for the Tokyo Olympics, and she also practices some other sports, including billiards throughout the week.