Applause for the loser…Brazil’s ‘one-armed ping pong’ Aleksandr
The Koreans were the winners, but it was the Brazilian ‘special player’ who received more applause.
The South Korean women’s table tennis team defeated Brazil 3-1 in the round of 16 of the women’s team event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Saturday at the South Paris Arena in France.
The Brazilians were led by Bruna Alexandre, 29, who plays table tennis with her left hand and no right arm.
Alexandre played as part of the doubles team against the Hangzhou Asian Games gold medalists Shin Yoo-bin (Korean Air) and Jeon Jeon-hee (Mirae Asset Securities), and she also competed as a fourth singles player.
With no right hand, she served the ball high with a ping-pong stick in her left hand.
At times, his movements looked precarious, but he managed to pass the ball like any other player.
Aleksandr had his right arm amputated six months after he was born due to thrombosis, a side effect of a vaccine.
But he never considered his disability a handicap.
He started playing table tennis as a teenager. He developed his balance by skateboarding and playing futsal. He trained hard and made a mark in Para table tennis.
He won bronze medals in the singles and team events at the 2014 World Para Table Tennis Championships in Beijing, and gold in the team event in Bratislava, Slovakia, in 2017.
She won bronze in the women’s singles and team events at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and silver in the singles event at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games,
His dreams were set on “higher ground.
He decided to try out for the Paris Olympics, and the Brazilian Table Tennis Association selected him for the national team.
He competed in the team event alongside sisters Bruna Takahashi and Giulia Takahashi, ranked 20th in the world in singles.
On that day, against South Korea, Alexandre made history in Para sports.
She became only the second table tennis player in history to compete in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games, joining Poland’s “one-armed table tennis legend” Natalia Partica.
He is also the first athlete in Brazilian sports history to compete in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
After completing his Olympic campaign, Alexandre will now continue his quest for a medal at the Paralympic Games in Paris, where he will become the sixth athlete to compete in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the same year.