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Xu Jialing of China holds the torch at the opening ceremony of the fourth Asian Para Games at the Olympic Sports Centre Stadium in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, October 22, 2023. /Xinhua
Xu Jialing of China holds the torch at the opening ceremony of the fourth Asian Para Games at the Olympic Sports Centre Stadium in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, October 22, 2023. /Xinhua
Chinese swimmer Xu Jialing lit the cauldron with her intelligent bionic left hand for the fourth Asian Para Games at the opening ceremony at the Olympic Sports Centre Stadium in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, on Sunday.
Xu learned from lead director Sha Xiaolan’s interview that she would be the one to ignite the flame. “I was told by the working staff that I would be one of the torchbearers inside the stadium at the opening ceremony, but I didn’t know my order in the lineup,” she told Xinhua News Agency. “I felt honored to handle such an important task.”
The bionic hand was produced by the Zhejiang-based company BrainCo. It enables the user to make moves by receiving electromyography and neural signals via sensors. Having spent some time getting used to wearing and using it, Xu said she can now “control it with her mind.”
Xu Jialing (L) of China holds the torch at the opening ceremony of the fourth Asian Para Games at the Olympic Sports Centre Stadium in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, October 22, 2023. /Xinhua
Xu Jialing (L) of China holds the torch at the opening ceremony of the fourth Asian Para Games at the Olympic Sports Centre Stadium in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, October 22, 2023. /Xinhua
“I have gotten used to life without my left hand,” Xu said. “But the bionic hand allowed me to hold the torch with both hands and to light the flame. It makes my life more convenient because I can take the glass or open the bottle.”
Xu lost the front part of her left arm in a car accident when she was four. Her mother and a local swimming team in Ningbo discovered her talent for swimming. She was first recruited by the provincial team in Zhejiang and then participated in the 2016 Summer Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
As the youngest Chinese athlete in Rio, Xu won one gold and two bronze medals. Then, in the Asian Para Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2018, she secured seven golds and two silvers. Though she underperformed in the following Paralympics in Tokyo in 2021, Xu grew more mature and learned how to take disappointment into her stride.
Xu Jialing of China ignites the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the fourth Asian Para Games at the Olympic Sports Centre Stadium in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, October 22, 2023. /Xinhua
Xu Jialing of China ignites the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the fourth Asian Para Games at the Olympic Sports Centre Stadium in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province, October 22, 2023. /Xinhua
“When I won the gold in Rio, maybe it came too easy; I thought it was not difficult to stand on the podium,” Xu recalled. “I didn’t get any medal in Tokyo. It felt bad, but I saw it coming because I wasn’t in my best form at that time. Now I have adjusted my mindset to focus on training and see what happens next.”
Though Xu competes in the Para Games, she doesn’t want others to feel sympathetic towards her. “Personally, I don’t want others to look at us with compassion or tears,” she told Xinhua. “We manage to come to the Asian Para Games because we are just like other athletes. We train hard too and may face more difficulties at the beginning, but I hope people won’t treat us differently.”
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