Astronaut carrying flag at Paralympics sends ‘powerful message’
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John McFall is an athlete, a surgeon and the world's first parastronaut, all after having his right leg amputated below the knee.
PHOTO: REUTERS
PARIS – When John McFall – the world’s first para-astronaut – carried the Paralympic flag at the opening ceremony of the Games in Paris on Aug 28,
The 43-year-old Briton had his right leg amputated below the knee after a motorcycle crash when he was 19, before becoming a surgeon himself and winning a bronze medal in the 100 metres at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.
In 2022, the European Space Agency (ESA) recruited him as its first astronaut with a physical disability.
“Astronauts are envoys of humanity,” McFall said. “So for someone with a physical disability to reach this pinnacle is a powerful message for humanity.
“It says ‘Listen, this is possible’.”
A keen runner and hockey player before his accident, he became a top-level athlete only after losing his lower leg.
He quickly embraced Paralympic sport, working at the Athens Games in 2004.
Four years later, he was one of the stars at the Beijing Games after becoming world 100m champion in 2007.
“I think sport has been a hugely powerful vehicle for making people appreciate what anybody is capable of,” he said.
“But now that we have Paralympic sport on the radar much more... it’s a really, really great, powerful platform to see what people with physical disabilities are capable of.”
Paris is his fourth Games, even if he is only a flag bearer this time.
The Englishman was recruited as an astronaut by the ESA as part of a programme to test the feasibility of sending someone with disabilities to space.
He believes that the same qualities that enabled him to overcome his accident, turn into a Paralympic sportsman and become a surgeon played a role in his selection.
“With my background as an athlete, as a surgeon and knowing my physical disability very, very well, I thought maybe I had a really great set of skills to show the ESA it was feasible,” said McFall, who had been working as a trauma and orthopaedic specialist in England.
He has been reviewing and testing all phases of a flight in space from the ESA’s Cologne astronaut centre in Germany, and will turn in a feasibility study by the end of the year.
He has yet to be guaranteed a specific flight but ESA said in July that it would be technically feasible for an astronaut with a physical disability to travel to space.
“What I would say to people who have any kind of trauma or have a life-changing event, is: Whatever it may be, find something that you are passionate about... because that’s what’s going to give you the reward,” McFall said. AFP, REUTERS
