Agency :
In a gym in Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty, Paralympic weightlifter Alina Solodukhina’s slight shoulders are feeling the strain under more than 60 kilogrammes of cast iron.
Solodukhina, who has dwarfism and is 125 centimetres (4.1 feet) tall, began weightlifting in 2017 and won a bronze medal at the Asian Paralympic Games in Indonesia last year.
Her success is symbolic of the ex-Soviet country’s drive to brand itself as a new power in para sports, even though disabled Kazakhs encounter multiple obstacles in everyday life and progress to make society more inclusive is slow. “For the moment, all my focus is on this,” the 25-year-old said of the World Para Powerlifting Championships the country is hosting this summer. A successful showing could help her qualify for the Paralympic Games in Tokyo next year.
But Solodukhina would also like the bid to promote para sports to lead to a better life for some of her colleagues in the weightlifting team and other disabled people.
“My condition does not stop me doing what I want to do. But for wheelchair users, life is far more difficult,” she said after a training session taking in bench presses, weight machines and a stint on the treadmill. “I would not say (Kazakhstan) has excellent conditions for them.”
Kazakhstan ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2015 and has claimed improvements in inclusion and access for over 600,000 people registered as disabled, particularly in the last decade.
In a gym in Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty, Paralympic weightlifter Alina Solodukhina’s slight shoulders are feeling the strain under more than 60 kilogrammes of cast iron.
Solodukhina, who has dwarfism and is 125 centimetres (4.1 feet) tall, began weightlifting in 2017 and won a bronze medal at the Asian Paralympic Games in Indonesia last year.
Her success is symbolic of the ex-Soviet country’s drive to brand itself as a new power in para sports, even though disabled Kazakhs encounter multiple obstacles in everyday life and progress to make society more inclusive is slow. “For the moment, all my focus is on this,” the 25-year-old said of the World Para Powerlifting Championships the country is hosting this summer. A successful showing could help her qualify for the Paralympic Games in Tokyo next year.
But Solodukhina would also like the bid to promote para sports to lead to a better life for some of her colleagues in the weightlifting team and other disabled people.
“My condition does not stop me doing what I want to do. But for wheelchair users, life is far more difficult,” she said after a training session taking in bench presses, weight machines and a stint on the treadmill. “I would not say (Kazakhstan) has excellent conditions for them.”
Kazakhstan ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2015 and has claimed improvements in inclusion and access for over 600,000 people registered as disabled, particularly in the last decade.
