He Junquan

We all know the Paralympics are full of athletes with amazing stories of perseverance and determination yada yada yada....  Often the athletes' "stories" become the story that gets reported - not their performance.

I won't make the same mistake here - because I actually know almost nothing about He Junquan's background or how he came to have no arms.  What I do know is that he has won 1 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze medal in the pool (so far).  The bronze was in the 50m Butterfly.  BUTTERFLY!!  His time:  37.07 seconds!

I sometimes opt out of kick sets at Masters.  I'm painfully slow on a kick set - I have only one leg to kick with so I usually do drills or something else while the others kick.

He Junquan only kicks - he never does anything but kick.  No opting out....  no looking for an excuse.  Care to think about how he touches the wall to stop the clock?  How he does a flip-turn without arms?  He hits the wall with his head!  How many lengths do you think he has done to get to the Paralympics??  Thousands and thousands... at the end of every length - cranium meets tile.  

I'm going to let that be a lesson....  the next time I am about to complain about ANYTHING I will think about He Junquan doing the FLY with NO ARMS and smoking the end of the pool WITH HIS HEAD.

Was that a complaint I heard?  Didn't think so.....

Watch him in this video:

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