#TUDN #Portuguese athelete Carla Paim and the gesture that earned the 'fair play award at the Tokyo Paralympic Games

 

https://www.record.pt/modalidades/jogos-olimpicos/paralimpicos/detalhe/carla-paim-e-o-gesto-que-valeu-premio-fair-play-fiz-o-que-gostava-que-me-fizessem-a-mim-ajudei?ref=Modalidades_DestaquesPrincipais

The Portuguese Carina Paim did what she would like to be done, when she supported the exhausted Aimi Toyama after both had finished the 400 meters T20 of the Tokyo'2020 Paralympic Games, in a gesture recognized by the 'fair play'.

"She was busted, at the end of the race I saw how she fell, I realized I couldn't do it anymore. I know what it costs, and I did what I would like to be done to me: I helped", tells the Paralympic athlete to Lusa agency.

The photograph of Carina Paim supporting and helping the Japanese girl to walk was widely shared on social media and ended up surprising one of the protagonists, with many messages of congratulations for her gesture and a 'fair play' award, recently awarded by the Panathlon Clube de Lisboa , an institution whose purpose is to affirm the sporting ideal and its moral and cultural values.

"I wasn't expecting this to happen, but I started to see photography circulating on social media and around the world", says Carina Paim, admitting that she didn't speak to the Japanese woman about the episode, because "at the time I couldn't even speak ", but suspecting that one of the congratulatory messages for the gesture "came from the coach" of Aimi Toyama.

On August 31, at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium, 22-year-old Carina Paim soon realized the demand that the Japanese woman was imposing on herself. "In the warm-up, I noticed that she was very, very strict in training. Three hours before the race she was 'pulling' a lot. At the end of the race, she couldn't stand it", says the Sporting athlete, who has medals in European and World Cups .

Carina Paim admits, with some "pity", that gestures like hers "don't see much" considering that they "should be normal" and adds: "The competition is not just about running and winning".

The Portuguese finished fourth in the final of the 400 meters T20, for athletes with intellectual disabilities, in which the North American Breanna Clark reached gold with a world record. The Japanese was seventh, still ahead of an athlete from Malaysia.

Carina Paim left Tokyo with her best ranking in Paralympic Games, after being 12th at Rio'2016, and as the protagonist of a "simple" gesture, which she liked to "see repeated whenever necessary".