headlines tune in to conjure reports. since childhood for the americas always stood out from his peers he hates losing and has never missed a single training session he came first in everything swimming ballroom dancing or chess at the age of sixteen started to lift weights four years later he took on the bronze medal in weightlifting from the london paralympics. coming in third place at the olympic games was his first serious defeat. and then you're going to win the bronze medal for me was poor consolation because when you know that you really could do better but you could show a much better result of course that upsets you but i'm only twenty you for it isn't

that the those are my first paralympic games so the result was a good start and i must keep up this level and move forward to go. for the i was born with a spinal injury when his mother was leaving the hospital they told her she had to do some special massages and he would be able to walk to help her son the dish to become a coach and adopted physical education every day they did special exercises hoping for a miracle however the boy could never stand on his feet to walk. it was very difficult i had stupid thoughts in my head when we were at a hospital with him i even thought of jumping out the window with my son ivan wished he was mentally handicapped so he would not understand that he could not

walk but my husband told me i think about what you're saying do you think you'll feel any better do you think you will feel any better. this is so we accepted the sad truth and began to fight. grandfather saw it on t.v. . the vehicle powered by the arts and by it's a really special vehicle for people with leg disabilities. they used to write it very often and he drove it literally everywhere but if you. put a man who used his homemade hand bike to go to a regular school in russia children with disabilities receive home schooling as a rule but for his parents it was a question of principle simply did not consider himself to be disabled. us in the world there are three steps going into the school building about half a metre away and once he fell over. and after that the headmaster wanted us to take him in after all the time but i said no it's no big deal if a child falls down happens to everyone when they're kids when you're. doing we made

him go outside for a walk when he was driving his hand bike his knees were shaking because of the atmosphere around him but i shouldn't he saw that people looked at him and it made him very tense but for the mayor was elected class president after lessons were over he never had a minute to spare he went swimming played the guitar took wheelchair dancing lessons and lived in wait he traveled a lot taking part in numerous performances and competition. is good with you because. you. play the most father was his personal driver and bodyguard after leaving his job he adjusted his schedule to his son's timetable however he's never made concessions to his son's condition. you won't be able to get through we will. but i want to show the apartment to my son we're definitely going out. of the war if you want to

achieve something you have to go all the way there's nothing you can do in this life. but after a move this will. still be under-floor heating here are you going to door into the kitchen. where you can be the balls anyway we like. we need to redesign. most russian cities especially the olympic host city of sochi are in need of disabled access for the twenty fourteen winter olympic and paralympic games. more than thirty years ago before the. one thousand nine hundred summer olympic games in moscow so we used dorothy's refused to host the paralympics. the organizing committee explained that the country was not ready for such an event.

that's really still a big. state slopes only actually it's one of those i mean if you don't have the right skills you would never be able to get to the top. is going to give me the push. my legs to call michael was born in sochi and has lived there all his life thirteen years ago the successful entrepreneur was injured while he was inspecting a construction site. debris from a building collapsed on him damaging his spine. because of the lack of an elevator inns apartment block it was a facsimile trapped in his fourth floor apartment for eighteen months. before that i didn't know anything about disabled people i was totally unaware of how they lived and this is that when i became disabled myself i realized how

difficult it was almost no wheelchair. and i felt that some make the world a better place i wanted to make it accessible for everyone. in only a few years because become a famous athlete and public figure when his hometown was awarded the winter olympics and it was consulted on how to make the city accessible to the disabled. come on come on let me come on you can do it alone. in my early teens i did not understand people i was afraid of. something and ashamed of my situation of the fact i was in a wheelchair people felt sorry for me then saying oh what a poor boy got on my nerves so i didn't feel that way i had a hard time going outside but when i began during sports my life changed completely

our society has also changed. my began to lift the bar at the same time. i mean so that i dance less as i was often busy lifting weights with dancing the result depends on both partners my partner and i had an ideal relationship because a couple should be one whole. let's i've always liked sports where you are responsible for yourself like with weights. if you feel to live something it's your fault. didn't fall in love with weightlifting at first sight the real excitement only came after

a few victories at several championships. at the paralympic games in london he was among the contenders for the gold medal. i to get it he only did just one more attempt and one more. i know that he could do even better he just needs a little more time and he has this time i miss him he twenty now and these were his first paralympic games you made himself known after taking third place it's very good and so was i like to tell him your day will come to order but i think it would have mattered. one marias hard a month before the olympics while he was a training camp when he saw maria at a cafe he made the first move.

i saw him push all the chairs out of his way to get to where i was sitting with his first question was why are you looking at me and smiling i stared at him as i did not know what to say it was so in most memorable even though he's only twenty he's much more mature than other guys is far above use age in terms of intelligence and communication and have him over but i see him on the news they rush to the t.v. and stand still in front of the screen i know you it's my for dinner now they see each other once a month at most studying to become a teacher and lives a thousand miles away from his home town as soon as she graduates chill moved to live with the mic so they'll be no more distance between them. we're going to go especially they're going to. a strip mall court is half the size of a regular basketball court with half the number of players to just one good catch can change the course of the game.

these athletes play by the same rules in everyday life among women with support of others is crucial. alex to call michael was the first to organize a russian sports an art festival in sochi for the disabled he wanted to show that there are no limits and that any of them could participate in the games despite his age i left wants to join a. part in the twenty four team paralympics which the world.

it really was good fortune this brought us together. was for the two of us are very much alike in all of our habits and of the way we like to live and. we really that bother each other it's all in the details. and you hear more from. very small you soon just with a good voice when you want a fetus and i never had the feeling that we had just met and that i just came here when my friends asked me if i'd got used to my new life i say that i didn't have to get used to anything was good i simply found my place in my cell mate. from school bus when it finally dawned on me that this woman was mine that's when i proposed to.

you soon and that's why we decided that will be really want to see a lawyer for god wills and. me is he. to meet.

the war. in. iraq.

before he turned seventeen peter was no different to most boys he loves speed and was keen on technology his passion for cars prompted parents to give him a motorcycles a present. a road accident which iraq owes the survivors changed his life forever after both his legs were amputated it took him two years to start his life anew. because you have to carry on living despite the circumstances. of course you may vegetated home all the time but i'd rather set

a goal and reach out for it. so what if i am disabled a big deal but i'm proud of who i am. ten years after the accident people became a four time champion of the vancouver paralympics he won four golds and won silver . when he realized he had no legs he started smashing all the equipment in the room he was hysterical the next day came to visit him he looked at me and i saw tears flow down his face and he said he will now abandon me. that was the first thing he said which was when we began fighting for the life i wanted to show him that we needed him so i told him you have your hands and your

legs and know that only wash your feet. at first eric's parents were afraid to leave him at home alone and he was too shy to go outside he put on thirty five kilos. it took me two years to rethink my life i had to learn how to eat by myself to go to the bathroom at seventeen i was just like a little baby all over again when you know it was very hard to carry on every day i had to improve but then little by little i learned to help my parents skip dinner meet them in the evening and so forth. when protests say he started doing his exercises he developed a diet of cottage cheese and saw his dishes well. sometimes i found sewing for him and that a diligent about what he could tell us was there and refused to eat it you

weightlifting swimming table to air played every possible sport but speed was still is greatest passion after one year of training he became the champion of russia in wheelchair racing that very winter he began to ski for the first time. i love the atmosphere i had been staying at home all the time but then i came out and saw the people in the world when i began to win and attract attention it was addictive he trained every day even in the little time he had at home he barely had time to see if family. alone. i've missed so much. let's play. just look it's very hard to stay without him especially when i see how the kids miss their dad our daughter misses him the most recent chaney's her dad our son misses him too he often tells him that he

should stop training so much and come home and. when his future wife dilemma before the car accident they were in the same group of friends as teenagers but they started going you know after iraq returned from his first paralympics. i was trying to convince him not to do it i told you that there were many healthy men and that he would find his soul mate on their team members but she said she loved him i told her that if she hurt him she would have to deal with me. but she found that it was serious. charged me with his positive energy and i wanted to talk to him more and more since i got somewhat

addicted to him he's the kind of person who gets things done is never complained about life about being disabled he has never said life is over for him he simply lives and enjoys just like. their son i knew or was born two years before his triumph at the vancouver paralympics. their daughter was born after his victory we got yeah she's now two her brothers four unfortunately their father has not been there for any of their birthday parties. and one two three. mama. butterfingers. into the deep. and with you. it's hard for erik every time he asked to leave home but he understands that will be more difficult to defend his title at the two thousand and fourteen olympics. than it was to win it for the first time. so how did i do.

you a fifth before you must come second to the semifinals. and a final. just. you'll be fighting for medals green. every year more young and strong contenders take part working out pushes the limit of human potential and can affect the health. of your beach my shoulders are sore. this year the right one has started leaking at the joint. that's been bothering me all season. recently eric has become interested not only in sports but also in political races a year ago he was elected deputy in the city council of his hometown i can't do sports forever but life goes on my sporting career will eventually end so i have to find something else. so i reached my peak in sports what i've achieved everything i

could i go to the very top i become the world champion i won world cups and international competitions i no longer have a passion or desire now i think about my family and children. yes so are we going to the kid center all right let's go after the kindergarten institutions for disabled children frequently invite. he knows how much money and effort is needed to make these kids normal members of society. hello my ria. maria you overvote was raised in an orphanage. that no hello maria little snow maiden her mother abandoned maria when doctors told her that her child was unlikely to survive and if she did she wouldn't be able to walk talk or hear normally owner mental development would be severely

impaired. at the age of twenty marie over became a champion at the winter paralympic games in vancouver winning two golds and won silver in biathlon and cross-country skiing. why did they give you. do you know why first place because you were the first. when she took part in russian championships she was always very upset if she was not there what did imagine she cried really hard do you want in you mad though very much she does. became maria's teacher of the age of seven the girls transferred from an orphanage to a special boarding school. and has been by maria's side since our first steps into sports taking her to all the training camps and competition the teacher became a mother to the girl even though she was only twenty then. you know beautiful am i to you. i don't know why do you think.

oh we're friends but we're really good friends. maria was lucky she was selected for the republic of commies national team maria has always stood out from the crowd she was a very active and sociable child but when serious training sessions began doctors strongly recommended that she should not get involved in professional sports she was born with no joints in her legs which leads to poor blood circulation so she could suffer serious health issues. i examined her almost every day i took a temperature and if there was any increase to be carried out medical to the first million years we were training for results our goal was just to make a solid foundation we wanted her to become strong. one year before the vancouver paralympics the coach just started to increase training they worked out six days

a week for eight hours at a time alexander worked with maria on the ski track while the tiana worked with her on shooting skills she was with the young athlete twenty four hours a day which is very bad i'm sorry let's go in skiing come on come on. after maria of us triumph at the olympics the story of the champion who was raised in an orphanage became known in practically every russian household. welcome russia's blight and joy may read the olympic champion. when maria came back from canada there was a surprise waiting for her at home her biological mother wanted to see her. there's maria in. the court told journalists that she was the one who abandoned maria twenty years ago. with something it's my

fault i was young and stupid when i don't know. the mother and daughter had an on camera meeting. please look at me. please don't shake your head. you simply can't understand a person with bandits who child immediately after birth and then eighteen years later turns up when his child has practically become a gold star achieved everything she wanted on her role and only then she appeared outrageous. so the girls grew up without she's never seen her. even though she's a biological mother i think it's inappropriate to act this way if the rear was around ten years old maybe then she might have responded differently.

after the olympics maria moved from the boarding school to an apartment of her own even though she cannot take care of herself that's why her closest friend is always with her. career has to win many more competitions turn her right participate in the twenty fourteen winter olympics. for the time being does not want to talk or meet with her biological mother. and discuss this new what do you love. do you love. news no i don't know who you know you're asking me. in every day life she may say she loves me even if i don't ask her about it she says i love you and goes away the weirdos all these things herself at home we learn to embroider. go learn different things. we play. employed learn and. remember.

murray overvote was born after the collapse of the soviet union in a new country more open to developing opportunities. but some challenges still remain. it would have to be twice as strong as other people it's hard for the disabled in russia we move forward little by little showing what we are capable of it's good they've noticed our sporting achievements it all started when we want to tour in coover they realise that disabled people are reality. now era three but it is preparing for his third paralympic games he wants the winter olympics in sochi to crown the end of his sporting career and signal the start of a new life. when you

come back daddy. goodbye darlings. you will have to prove many times that people with disabilities actually have unlimited abilities. they can build careers like everyone else have happy families and become world champion. science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered. the modern mission of free accreditation streets closed for judges free. range ones free risk free studio types free. a

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