S. African para surfers aiming to make big splash
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Para athletes have high hopes that surfing will make its Paralympic debut at the Los Angeles 2028 Games.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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CAPE TOWN – Sitting on his wheelchair on a sandy Cape Town beach, Raemondo Lessing, 16, watched as fellow surfers ride the same waves on which he learnt his craft.
Having lost both his legs and arms to meningitis when he was only a few months old, the teenager is now one of South Africa’s best para-surfers – and is dreaming of showing his skills at the Paralympics.
“I still feel it’s a dream. I’ve been surfing for two years. I started off as a person who can’t even balance,” he told AFP, wearing a red T-shirt and a large smile.
“If I could be in the Paralympics, what more could I do? Because that’s the only place I’m working myself up to.”
Surfing was added to the Olympic roster at the last Games in Tokyo in 2021 and will also feature when Paris hosts the showpiece in 2024. But the discipline is yet to make its Paralympic debut. Para-athletes hope it will happen at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Among them are Lessing and fellow 16-year-old Thando Ngcikwe, who on Saturday competed in the first stage of the new Global Para Surf League in Cape Town.
The pair grew up in Khayelitsha, an impoverished township with a reputation for drugs and crime.
They were introduced to the sport at a “surf therapy” session by South African surfing champion and coach Roxy Davis in 2021.
“It was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had,” said Ngcikwe, a double leg amputee.
The two got “addicted” to the sport and soon joined a team run by Davis’ foundation.
“Surfing, I feel stress free. I feel like I’m in my own zone, in my own shell,” added Lessing.
“I lock all the bad memories and all that stuff behind my head. Just focusing on what I’m doing.”
Two assistants help him catch the waves and end his ride. Once on the board “I surf with my tummy”, he said.
Lessing and Ngcikwe have obtained good results at the national level, with the former already in the national team.
They are now hoping to make a bigger splash.
“Surfing is in the Olympics... Para-athletes deserve to be in the Paralympics too,” said coach Davis. AFP
