Courting success: A journey to Paris 2024

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2024

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One of the highlights of the Paralympics is wheelchair tennis and one of its true champions is Kgothatso Montjane. KG, as she likes to be known, was born with amniotic band syndrome, a condition that prevents limbs from developing properly. It did not stop her from pursuing her dreams. In 2021 KG became the first black South African to compete at Wimbledon. She tells the story of her life and career, the big successes and the challenges she faced. She speaks to Brad Parks, who co-invented the game, and Shingo Kunieda, regarded to be the best male player of all time, former champion Jordanne Whiley, and KG’s hero Esther Vergeer.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the documentary from the BBC Wall Service,
0:04.7	Coding Success, A Journey to the Paralympics 2024.
0:08.5	I am Hutazzo Munjani.
0:10.3	I never dreamed of being a tennis player. Coming from a rural inward looking village in South Africa,
0:18.0	that kind of a thing wasn't imaginable. I also had another problem. I was born with amineotic band syndrome which meant my
0:28.2	limbs didn't develop properly and when I was 12 I had my lower left leg amputated and yet now here I am preparing for
0:37.6	Paralympic games in Paris 2024. of the International Paralympic Committee. There's a strong combination that will make these games absolutely unforgettable.
0:56.3	Paris is Paris, so we have this incredible venues close to iconic landmarks.
1:02.3	It has the Paris factor and of course the excitement of
1:05.2	being the first summer games with spectators after Rio 2016. We often say
1:10.6	that the Paralympic Games is the only event of global impact that puts persons with disability centre stage.
1:16.7	It's the best platform on the planet to move forward the agenda of persons with disability and this is something that International
1:23.6	Paralympic Committee has decided to do to really work together with civil society, private sector,
1:30.6	the disability human rights movement to use the games as a platform for change
1:35.1	so that's why for example we launch this campaign called we the 15 in the lead up to the
1:40.0	Tokyo games 15% of the global population has a disability.
1:44.4	So it's important to give information to people and why not use the Paralympic Games that it's a global
1:49.0	impact.
1:50.0	So yes, it's about high performance, it's about winning, it's about medals, but it is also about
1:55.8	bringing people together. It's also about changing perspective. It's also about changing the lives,
2:01.3	not only of the 4,400 athletes in the Paralympic Village, but of the 1.2 billion persons with disability on the planet.
2:11.0	As a child, there were so many disappointments in my life because I felt like I couldn't fit in and that really broke my heart simply because I had no understanding of why the other kids couldn't let me be a part of them.
	...

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