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enjoy your favorite. t.v. it's not required to watch on t.v. all you need. to watch r.t. any time. again and welcome to spotlight. on r.t. i'm they my guest on the program is. russia came second in an official medal count. with up to thirty six of them. one of those games was a young lady from moscow she chose not to support after losing her best friend and

her left arm in a terrible car accident came up with a world record in swimming at the beijing. four years later in london she managed to break her own record and one another gold medal she is. taken and she's my guest in the studio. russia has come second in the medal stable at the two thousand and twelve paralympics helped by swimmer. and won a complete set of gold silver and bronze and sat a new world record five years ago alyssa lost an arm in a traffic accident just a month later she showed up at a swimming pool. atis driven to recover she spent hours practicing to put facts and new swimming technique hard work paid off. is a double paralympics champion an ambassador of sorts to two thousand and fourteen

winter olympics out of the pool she promotes paralympic sports so people with disabilities can enjoy an active life. hello melissa welcome to the show i know you study english i know you're not good enough i know you're a perfectionist so so we speak english or russian you choose right now russian ok ok well first of all congratulations in the medal congratulations on the second record. here's my first question because after you want to. thanks in beijing four years ago you called it the good biggest achievement or your lifetime the washed over me now four years later you have won another. does this mean this mail is your biggest achievement. from there they're just different just chest like the honda games are different from beijing.

when i won gold. i was over the moon i think that victory came as a surprise since i got sand where i was not as much emotional and physical stress involved with i was basically recovering after the accident where i lost a good friend an unarmed person but. very different because i had to train hard and competition was very tough there was so much going on in my head so much doat so it was a lot more difficult in other words what you're saying yes it is easier to make it to the top of them to stay there exactly i've learned from experience if you compare them in london before the show you told me that you like the paralympics in beijing more why was that was that because it was your first paralympics or

because of its oriental location or for some other reason that yes that was my first time and i laugh novelty really and i couldn't help but marvelling at how enormous it all was the first server to open in ceremony the far were volunteers we had a chance to take a tour of the city that felt like a major adventure. in london it felt like i went there with a very specific goal in mind to win a medal and just to complete to do my best it's because it is or was it the mindset within the russian team or the approach you personally had was the british organizers who will eventually come around the city answer places like tell bridge . well everyone expected a lot from arts and i also said. at this kind of a high standard for myself so i guess there was something of an approach i has

adopted for myself but let's take a closer look now at the president the success of the russian team at the paralympics here's a story from spotlights to me that are. watching they'll and the games have lately turned into quite a painful experience for russians who expected to see more than the athletes actually delivered but the london paralympics turned out to be quite a different experience the number of medals won multiplied dramatically with each day the russian paralympians eventually set fourteen world records one thirty six schools took second place in the overall medal count and were treated like national heroes on their return a true as you showed us was that i want to congratulate you once again with your amazing performance at the fourteenth paralympic games in london you have really shown the highest class we've seen your will your aspirations to become champions

you made the russian team one of the world leaders in paralympic sport it is a mild ironically it's made huge leap to achieve their london success from quite a modest eighth place in the overall medal count four years ago this time they made their able boarded olympians feel jealous of the stunning progress they made besides the titles won by the paralympians seem somewhat more precious as they have a bittersweet taste about them the hind their triumphs often stories of simply having to come to terms with life of overcoming fears depression and despair one of the stars of the paralympics alexia chicago had been a professional reliable player before he lost his leg in an accident ten years ago he had enough courage to staines court this term in london he clinched and we've run sigyn seen this. normally a match to human abilities which made at least some of us find even more of the

true sporting spirit in the paralympics than in the quest cicle games. so might as we'll be watching this report so we started talking about how much silver and bronze medals mean. i totally understand that even to participate in the games especially in the paralympic games this means last year. there are so many women like you who suffered a terrible accident and gave up on life so to stay in school or to go to the paralympics out of the national team this makes you a real hero for at least as far as your are there in the board there is also another when you can look at it for example i have a son who does sports and i always tell him that being first is all that matters and that he should never settle for less agreement. they. may have a point by saying i disagree. the accident has changed the way. this thing or this. so.

that you know being first is not what life is about. you have to live in the moment shouldn't fixate on or winning. otherwise you just miss out on the life force. what makes you happy person is not when you achieve a real york of what it is rather the process of pursuing that. the little things you do every day. or what you feel. and what you think of this is the second time i learned from experience what it feels like to pursue and wanted feels like to get there and maybe it's just me but after i win a medal or achieve a milestone i know. kind of. just. saying

yes. there is nothing good about feeling empty right to be frank sometimes even the fans get that feeling once the olympics and the paralympics are over and wake up in the morning and you're going to need to switch on the t.v. and you don't know what to do next or it's similar to what you're talking about. the whole thing is that yes it is you just get stomped to me anyway you come back to moscow with a present means you. get some presents in fact quite a distant financial markets do you feel happy. overall you're a happy woman yes i'm happy absolutely. let me ask you something you sleep with let's say there is no accident that you get married and become a housewife you have a good husband and a nice house. you be happier than you are now. where they live you know you know with me you. know if. i

never go back to that situation i'll live with what i have now as they see i thought and i really appreciate what i have. participating in the paralympics twice. a year lots that i really have a lot of. russian paralympian sometimes show even better results than the olympic athletes. do explain that the government does this mainly something's wrong with our professionals. and i was glad. i don't think something's wrong with our prisoners and i think what our olympic athletes did well. we saw them here it was a game and i can say they train very well. because that is just that the only

and paralympic games are very different but in this part olympic games are a relatively recent development of that election and it is easier to make progress when you start asking neutral with less compared to a situation where you have already achieved so thank you and that i would agree example when i said you know world record in beijing i approved over the old one by three second quarter but when i broke my own record in all dano i only managed to improve it by half a second after that i mean once you reached a certain level of it gets harder edged it was. four years older and yet you were able to improve with the second one child bat of course that's great what i mean. i think it is harder for olympians to achieve good results than for parley not once but that because they are limited games have been there for a while and everything miss out the crews everything all the countries all that as well as they all participate they all prepare for it but it's paralympics some

people in russia hardly even know by them it's a new saying you have the president to meet with the team before the games and after the games and i have this reception in the kremlin with all these a words and with paralympic and getting the same bonuses as olympians i mean we're still a to early stage and that's why we make great strides later i think we'll come to a point where things will get difficult for us but that's not to say we have a teaser as a tease of course so as i list the work week of the russian the paralympic gold medal winner spotlight will be back shortly after a break so stay with us. to

. listen with. a special welcome to all the ladies and agents from the n.s.a. c o m i five. because they. would spring from the street. as we speak. because if. wealthy british. market. find out what's really happening to the global economy

with. the global financial headlines. a report. welcome back to spotlight. in just a reminder that my guest on the show today is. glad they can she is at three time medal winner at the london olympics she has the gold medal and browns. now after such a successful performance in london with. the russian team. many people including some prominent journalists rode that this was actually a real surprise and the paralympic games should even come first the regular olympics the millionaire game call it should be held afterwords.

yes. i mean you've been on both sides you used to be a pro athlete and now you're a paralympian i think there is a point in that. and you really get inspired when you see a disabled people kind and compilation in. a law that says that you can too that. you get important work. those are words that they come to thought why can't you. quote those. paralympians may inspire us in some way. is that at. first do you agree that what you have at the paralympic games genuine emotion on the atmosphere out there a competition do you think much of that has been lost to the regular olympic games

remember how in the past pro athletes were not even allowed to compete in the olympic games only amateurs were but now with professional athletes and commercial advertising it's sort of being transformed into a big showbiz event during greek i do but don't you think that with the paralympic games gaining popularity like you said with stands and have to be bonuses the same thing will happen with the paralympics as well i think it too well and in fact it is already happening here is it good or bad yes there's a lot of my i think there is nothing wrong with that i think it's only natural. that we have things we need to do and we have to try this policy. or the price we pay is that we have a commercial advertisement where sport is reducing the story it's common knowledge that professional sport is bad for your health i mean if we talk about the pros i think the french. are good for the health. my family would definitely have

a barrel in the house of national heroin thingy there to show you that you can overcome your disability you can conquer your illness. but once you make it into something professional once it gets. used to. that you are further damaging your body. and only this just for the sake of sponsors and revenge. that's. truly people. that are olympic games have already been through the toughest experience in their lives. and that. there is no further risk for their health. so when you mention something interesting earlier that paralympians compete of their own risk they're not required to have a paper from the doctor saying that they can't compete and to put it bluntly they are not going to have

a heart failure in the risk is real and these people go for it in order to prove that they can make it right but when they want to prove this is primarily to themselves and this is another thing that makes the paralympic games different from the olympics because it's good but why would you need to go to london in order to prove something to yourself. i didn't know you just have things dream this go yes you may have some hesitations. and you need this to boost your confidence i need this for the sake of self-fulfillment you need to get to prove to yourself and others that you can do it. you know many people say that moscow and russia in general are not really suitable for people with disabilities and this is partially because after world war two stalin. was a country of victorious invalid. so the authorities did their best to get the

invalid's and there was naturally a large number of them after work to get them out of sight because the country was recovering after the war and people did not want to be reminded about the war they just wanted to put their lives back on track and this attitude deeply rooted in russian people brought on so you have. in the very heart of paris where the poland story. but in russia it's very different occurrences my father who was born and raised during the stalin era he doesn't want to watch the paralympics he says is depressing when you. say to that can you understand. i know what you're talking about. and i can even tell you that used to be swayed. i never watch the paralympics and you know none of my friends deal. with disability

this was one of the thing is we tend to forget that this can happen to anybody this can happen to us just so when our friends and i never cared about it as a member. people. you know they are into this for that and they are in every event and they support me. they are all about athletes they know about the offloads want to civility there have their lives and they don't turn away from the. contrary they are now keen to know more about this sport and both the astley as a person chance to bow to his disability might. that paralympics on t.v. people will never get used to it they will never learn to see beyond his abilities because after all it is not a disability that defines who. we just saw the video of the reception your fellow athletes had in the recently departed. there are different ways people

come to paralympics course some are like you they were professional athletes and then they had an accident or something and then continue as a paralympian. others were born with disabilities or they take up sports as a part of their recovery program after an accident and they turn out to be good at it. is more common. i don't know. and i really don't think it matters that much. was it a difficult decision for you to stay in sports after your accident or was it a natural thing to do how did you make that decision and. it was not a difficult decision to make especially after my first coach called me at the house patel in bangkok. and then i talked to mom about it let's just have this realisation that i need to go on with swimming let's just have a try but i didn't think about it because it was the paralympics or anything of

this sort how do you think about that i just knew i had to go to the pool i had to swim and all of these other things they came up so you stayed with the same coach for those of us when quest to do the same k. which i had for the two years prior to the accident. did you train together with others in the same pool separately. the same the same guys used to train with. one fact on their own the paralympics but paralympics boards are quite special swimming perhaps is not that different. so are there special coaches special training programs special facilities for maryland patients. really have. special. chairs special equipment i guess actual training facilities yes and special game. we have everything you look at by the way i was watching the

paralympic track and the other day right with athletes you know wheelchairs and i thought to myself but actually this is no longer a track and field because they're not actually running this is more like cycling we have paralympic cycling as well yes i remember the first time i was impressed by paralympians i worked in a long time. three mountain climbers in wheelchairs we went to westminster abbey and i asked them how they managed to climb mountains in wheelchairs. they said climbing wasn't hard at all climbing down was the difficult part. so they said we're going to show you how we do it we were standing on the top of a stairway of about forty steps and it was pretty steep and they will ride down the stairway this new yorkers who are here it was almost as if they slid down the slope with all the journalists there they said we didn't get any pictures of that too but

we can you show it again it was amazing so you're right it's different so would you say no to vision is higher with paralympians as compared to regular athletes. i think. this is part of the reason why our paralympic team was so good both in the winter and summer games. because this is something unbelievable. what do you plan to do after you retire from competitive sports. probably works for. something or it's related. or a thought that may be something on television in other words you haven't seriously considered as yet or when they're thinking. you're probably just too these are getting prepared for the next paralympics such as. the now i'm technically not

getting prepared for its cames because i just got back from these games a couple of days ago and right now i want to focus on the primera teen their paralympic movement as much as possible. so also it is very important to prepare everything for the paralympic games in sochi we have less than two years left it will soon be five hundred days before the opening and we still need to do a lot of dance i think russia can and should host the best games in the history of the paralympics and i would love to participate in this work porchester there was a pariah you are an ambassador of the subject and so i wish you the best of luck will soon so she had two years thank you thank you for being with us learn what you learn your english and when you come back started it was fitting which i did thank you just a reminder that was i use that word week in the russian paralympic that said without the ball spotlight would you feel that they are quality and take.

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