Table tennis player wants to be the 1st in the country to compete in the Olympics and Paralympics – News of Brazil
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Table tennis player Bruna Alexandre has the goal of being the first athlete in the country to compete in the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The 28-year-old from São Paulo, who had her right arm amputated at the age of three months, due to a poorly applied vaccine, is close to her fourth Paralympics, between August 28 and September 8, 2024, in Paris. She, however, wants to arrive earlier in the French capital and also compete in the Olympics, from July 26 to August 11.
Working with able-bodied athletes is nothing new for Bruna, who started playing table tennis at the age of seven and only discovered the Paralympic sport when she was 12. Even so, she did not fail to face “conventional” table tennis players. The woman from São Paulo competes in the national women’s “Olympic” circuit and was even last year’s Brazilian champion. In 2019, the table tennis player obtained a place, through a selective process, in the selection that competed in the Pan American Games in Lima (Peru).
“In a 20-year career, what helped me a lot to be among the best in the world at the Paralympics was the Olympics. In it, I play with people with both arms, who don’t have any difficulty with balance, so when I go to the Paralympics, I don’t feel that difficulty. The Paralympic has a different game, more closed, while the Olympic is more open. I’m learning every day [sobre] these differences”, explained Bruna.
In Paralympic table tennis, athletes with mobility impairments are divided into ten classes. The higher the category number, the lower the degree of physical-motor impairment. Third in the world in class 10, Bruna is almost classified for the Paralympics in Paris according to the world ranking of the International Federation of the modality (ITTF), but she can secure her place in November, without depending on the list, if she is champion of the category at the Parapan American Games in Santiago (Chile).
“In May, I play one last championship to fulfill the demands [da ITTF] for the Paris Paralympics. Then I start in June [a jogar] the international Olympic championships. From then on, I manage to enter the Olympic world ranking and try for a place in the Pan American Games. [que também serão em Santiago] and at the Olympics”, said the woman from São Paulo, who has four Paralympic medals (one silver and three bronzes) and a world title in mixed doubles, last year, in Granada (Spain), alongside Paulo Salmin.
The Olympic path is more complicated. The women’s team, first, needs to qualify for Paris, which would mean guaranteeing three places for Brazil. If that happens and the selection criteria are the same as the Tokyo Olympics (Japan) in 2021, two places will go to the country’s best positioned players in the ranking – currently, Bruna Takahashi (40th) and Luca Kumahara (113th) – and one defined by technical choice.
The inspiration to believe in the Olympic dream comes from one of Bruna’s great rivals in the Paralympics: Natalia Partyka. Owner of nine medals in the Paralympics, six of them gold (four in the individual), the 33-year-old Polish woman also competed in four Olympics. In March of this year, the Brazilian won an unprecedented victory over Partyka, in the final of the Lignano Open (Italy).
“It was a very big step. He had played five, six times with her, never won. I’m very happy and motivated. [Na Paralimpíada] I have a bronze and a silver in the individual, so in Paris I want to get the gold. At the Olympic Games, I know it is very difficult to get a medal, but I would be very happy to be there, competing on an equal footing and showing that disability is nothing”, he concluded.
Source: Brazil Agency
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