When a nation’s sporting strength helps lay the foundation

There were eight minutes left, the score was 0-0 and the blind football final at Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games was on a knife-edge.

Then Raimondo Mendes, better known as Nonato, took charge.

A mazy run, a dribble past two opponents and a cracker of a shot with the outside of his left foot. Goal. And yet another Paralympic gold medal for the Brazil’s 'Canarinha'. 

Samba magic, sublime skill and a win over old rivals Argentina confirmed once again that, when it comes to the beautiful game, Brazil’s visually impaired footballers share the same DNA as their fully-sighted counterparts.

Brazil entertain and that applies no matter the age, gender, or version of the game. If they beat their biggest foes, so much the better. A tradition has been born.

There are other sports who have drawn on their roots, too. Think China and table tennis, Great Britain and rowing, USA and basketball.

Football veteran Ricardinho was devastated when he lost his eyesight at the age of eight. Then he was told about blind five-a-side football and his life was transformed.

“When I found out that I had a chance to play football again, my heart became full of hope and joy – I was able to get back to my childhood dream and pursue it," he told Paralympic.org.

Team-mate Jardiel Vieira Soares, who suffered congenital blindness from toxoplasmosis, fell in love with the sport because his father was a Flamengo fan and watched the matches on TV. Soares could only listen.

At the age of 15 he tried five-a-side for the first time and was invited to join a club.

“I told my mother that I wanted to go. My first championships were in 2014 and from then I realised that this was what I wanted in my life,” he told Paralympic.org.

China keep a step ahead

If blind football took its Paralympic inspiration from the conventional game of football, China’s para table tennis players have always been a step ahead of their non-impaired colleagues.

The sport was part of the Paralympic movement at Rome 1960 before it was played at Seoul 1988 Olympic Games.

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, China won four of the five gold medals on offer. Then their Paralympic counterparts bagged an amazing gold-medal tally of 16 and added four silver and six bronze. They featured in 11 singles finals and won eight of them.

Dominating the hoops

When it comes to wheelchair basketball, look no further than seven-time world champions USA, who won gold at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. Their Olympic counterparts made it four gold medals in a row.

The Paralympians were inspired by Steve Serio, paralysed after surgery to remove a spinal tumour at 11 months. Yet he needed to be won over to the wheelchair version of the sport and only started playing at the age of 15.

“Wheelchair basketball was like a foreign language. Do the players play on a 10-foot hoop? Can people dribble in a wheelchair? Are the rules the same? Basketball in a wheelchair?” he said in a tribute to his family for Team USA’s website.

"It allowed me to embrace the things that make me different. Sports allowed me to embrace my disability and my flaws and turned me into a kickass athlete who has hopefully become a good leader for the Paralympic movement."

Rowing toward greatness

When it comes to rowing, Olympic or Paralympic, Great Britain tend to finish on top of the podium. The Para team were the only NPC to win more than one gold at Tokyo 2020.

James Fox is in a unique position to experience both sides of the sport. He started rowing at the age of 11 and represented the national junior team.

Seven years later he was involved in a serious car crash and broke his back.

"At that point, I quit the sport. The Paralympics has brought me back into the sport and kept me doing the things that I love,” he said.

Fox’s roll of honour is headed by gold medals in PR3 Mixed Coxed Four at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 and five world championships. He was never beaten after making his debut in 2013 and is now retired.

He stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Olympians like Sir Steve Redgrave and Matt Pinsent, a perfect example of how a nation’s traditional sporting strengths finds its way to Para sport.