Paris (France): The 22-year-old armless Brazilian swimmer Gabriel Geraldo dos Santos Araujo showed a remarkable performance in the Paralympics winning his third gold medal. He won the gold medal in the 200m Freestyle in S2 Category clocking a time of 3:58.92 seconds. Neutral athlete Vladimir Danilenko and Chile's Alberto Abarza Diaz concluded the race in second and third place respectively.
The Brazilian athlete follows his successes in the 100m backstroke and 50m backstroke.
"I'm really, really happy. I feel like I'm a rocketman and rockets don't go backwards, (they) always go straight and always forward,” he said after the race.
"And as they say, rockets don't have wings, so let's keep taking off.
It is a common perception that an individual cannot swim without arms. But, the athletes in the Paralympics are proving the perception wrong by competing successfully.
Gabrielzinho had won two gold medals and a silver in the Tokyo Olympics and it was his third gold in the Paralympics history. Swimmers in the S2 category have no hand or wrist flexion which restricts them from catching water. India’s Sheetal Devi is also another armless athlete who is the sole active archer across the globe to shoot arrows with legs.
In the Paralympics so far, India has won 21 medals. The country has earned a single medal in the Para Archery while bagging 11 medals in the Para Athletics. Five medals came from Para Badminton while four were earned in the Para Shooting.
