Ghanaian Athletes Given Right To Dream
Four Right to Dream athletes, comprising the Ghanaian Paralympic team, have joined over 4,000 athletes from 160 countries at London 2012, as the biggest Paralympic Games in history gets underway.
Raphael Nkegbe-Botsyo (wheelchair track athlete), who led the team into the Olympic Stadium at this week’s Opening Ceremony, is competing in his third consecutive Games where his hopes rest on the 100m track event this weekend.
Completing the four-man squad are Charles Narh Teye (powerlifter), Alem Mumuni (para-cyclist), and Anita Fordjour (wheelchair track athlete).
Narh Teye competes at the Excel Centre from 2nd-3rd September, Mumuni in the Cycling Road Race at Brands Hatch from 5th-6th September, and Fordjour in both the 100m and 200m track events on the 1st-2nd and 6th September respectively.
Raphael Nkegbe Botsyo said: ‘I felt honoured to carry the flag for my nation, for the third consecutive Paralympics. This could be my final Games, so I am happy to be raising the flag for my country. It gives me great pride to be in front of my fellow athletes, disabled people from my home nation Ghana, and to lead the team into what promises to be an historic event.’
Alem Mumuni added: ‘I do not feel like I am doing something extraordinary, but I just took my little light and shined it in the darkness. I am using this path and my disability as a showcase for human ability to overcome the bodily limitations.”
The road to London has been far from easy for the athletes who have fought to overcome numerous challenges and hardships in a country where disability is still often viewed in a negative light.’
Competing at London 2012 is not the end of the mission; the athletes are determined to use the opportunity and platform on the world stage to become role models for society, changing the perception of disability in Ghana and inspiring the next generation of para-sporting talent to become world class athletes and leaders of change. It is the athletes’ ambition that they sow the seeds for the next generation of Ghanaian disabled athletes.
