Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
Chan Yui-lam burst into tears as she stepped onto the podium at the Paris Paralympic Games in August.
At only 20 years old, Chan won a silver medal in the women’s S14 100-metre butterfly event.
“Stepping on the podium has fulfilled my dream ... I’m so honoured,” said Chan, a full-time athlete who recently celebrated her 21st birthday.
Overcoming obstacles
Growing up with an intellectual impairment, Chan sometimes struggled to understand meaning in conversation.
“Most people ... might not know the best way to communicate with me,” Chan explained through a translator.
“In the mainstream, people can express the underlying meaning with facial expressions and tone, but [for me], I can only understand the direct meanings.”
As a child, she attended a special needs school in the city. When she was around 10, her mother enrolled her in swim lessons.
Despite becoming a skilled swimmer, her disability still affects her training even today.
“The coach will give verbal instructions, and I may not be able to understand what the instruction is about,” she said. “I can understand better with visuals.”
Soaring to new heights
Only after winning medals at her first international swimming competition in 2018 did Chan feel inspired to reach for the Paralympics.
A few years later, Chan’s dream became a reality when she qualified for the Tokyo Paralympics. “I was so shocked!” she said. “I didn’t expect to be able to go there.”
Chan placed fourth in the 100m butterfly final, just 0.15 seconds behind third. She used the result as motivation when preparing for the 2024 Paris Paralympics. “I really wanted to be on the podium [in Paris],” she said.
Chan competed in six swimming events in the Paris Games, all within the S14 category for athletes with intellectual impairments.
She finished at 1:03.70 to win a silver medal in the 100-metre butterfly final. As soon as she exited the pool, Chan jumped around in celebration.
As a successful para-swimmer, Chan is quickly becoming an inspiration for other young athletes with special needs. Her advice to aspiring athletes was to create solid goals for yourself.
And Chan is taking her own advice when looking ahead to the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics.
“When I got second place in the Paris Paralympics, I told myself that I would get a gold medal and a world record next time,” she said.
Use the puzzle below to test your knowledge of the vocabulary words in the story.
Suggested answers
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Stop and think: Chan struggles to understand hidden meanings in conversations. This means that she sometimes does not understand her coach’s instructions and prefers visual explanations instead.
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Think about it: Chan placed fourth in the 100-metre butterfly in the Tokyo Paralympics and narrowly missed out on a bronze medal. In the Paris Paralympics, she improved her performance by finishing second and getting a silver medal in the same event.
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Consider: Chan said that aspiring para-athletes should set concrete goals for themselves and work towards them. She set her own goal to win a gold medal and break a world record at the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics.
