"I think we're going to live in an era where it's not enough to just wait,"
said Atsushi Yamamoto (40), a leading figure in Para athletics, one year after the opening of the Tokyo Paralympic Games.
Now that's why I heard the message I want to convey.
(Yuri Numata, sports news department reporter)
Reasons for challenging “dual wielding”
At the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games, in his first appearance, Atsushi Yamamoto became the first Japanese track and field athlete with a prosthetic leg to win a silver medal.
At the Tokyo Paralympics, she improved her personal record in the long jump and came in fourth.
1 year after that.
I visited Osaka, the training base, to hear from Yamamoto.
Up until now, Yamamoto has challenged himself in a variety of competitions while maintaining his focus on track and field.
He is also known as a pioneer of the “two-sword style” of para athletes, having competed in snowboarding at the Pyeongchang Winter Paralympics.
What surprised me when I visited was that the title of “golfer” had increased by one more.
Yamamoto, who is taking on new challenges after each big event such as the Paralympics, has started playing golf again and is aiming to participate in the national tournament in October.
Almost every day, at 7:00 a.m., I keep hitting at the practice field.
After 8:00 a.m., I head to the track and field stadium, which is also the main battlefield.
After finishing the big stage of the Tokyo Paralympics, Yamamoto continues to run.
“What motivates Yamamoto?”
When I asked him a question, he immediately answered with a big smile.
(Yamamoto)
“I just love it. It’s fun and I want to compete
. It is said that it leads to improvement.
(Yamamoto)
“Sports have many things in common. It’s not enough to swing with all your might in a golf swing, and it’s not enough to just run with all your strength. Because there is, I do it while thinking that golf and track and field are similar.”
“Golf is a sport in which it is important to recover even if you make a mistake. , I think it's the same in the sense that I'm fighting with myself.
We asked Yamamoto how he sees the year after the Tokyo Paralympics.
(Yamamoto)
"The event was postponed for a year, but I think it was a good opportunity for Japanese people to know what the Paralympic Games are like.
" However, he laughed and talked about his 4th place finish at the Tokyo Games.
“When I finished the race, I thought it would be wrong to finish in 4th place. There was a big difference between having a medal and not having one. After the Tokyo Games, it's not that they weren't happy, but I was keenly aware that there is a big difference between having a medal and not having one."
One year after the Tokyo Paralympics, the “bubble” has burst
What about the current situation in which the tournament, which was called a “parabubble” due to the generous support it received from hosting the tournament in your own country, has come to an end?
(Yamamoto)
“When I participated in the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games, I felt that the excitement leading up to the Tokyo Paralympics was a bubble. I don't know, but in my case, I get a lot of interviews every four years, and the years in between are completely gone. I thought of
In 2017, Yamamoto left the company he was a member of and decided to turn professional.
He said, ``I think that working as a single employee in a company would have caused some negative effects, but I think that becoming a professional has enabled me to take initiative.''
“Even though the 'bubble' has now burst, I think it's still in a pretty good place.
After the tournament, only one company ended Yamamoto's sponsorship contract.
(Yamamoto)
“I think we will enter an era where it is not enough to just wait.This time, para-athletes will have to be great people, or they will have to be solid human beings. Instead, I think that the time has come when I have to think about what I want to do and what message I can convey.”
What are your thoughts on the challenges facing the para-athlete world?
(Yamamoto)
“I think the most important thing is to discover young talent. After all, the age group is quite high. I think it will become stronger if many people can challenge the game (to the world), and if I can do that, it will be the best."
"A strong player .
It's not fun without them, so first we have players who are going to play, strong players, and let the world know about them as we go along."
In that sense, do you think it's meaningful to increase the number of athletes who challenge "dual wielding" like Mr. Yamamoto?
(Yamamoto)
“You can imagine that one athlete can do many things by doing 2 or 3 events. It makes me feel like I should give it a try.”
“By having several strengths of your own, if you have three pillars, I think you can become the only one in Japan. I'm an athlete and a medalist.Also, I have a dual wielding axis, so if I put it all together, I don't think I'm in Japan.There are many people who say that it would be better to become a person who can be the only one. I'll do it in a nice place."
“For now, let’s take on a challenge. No one knows where your abilities lie. I think that if you think about what you want to do and what society wants, you'll be able to see where you want to go. But even if I don't like it very much, if I'm good at it, I think it matches what society wants. If you think about it, I think you can be very happy."