The Bhutan Paralympics Committee is hopeful of Bhutan’s participation in the upcoming Paralympic Games this year. Originally scheduled to be held from August last year, it has now been moved to this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Governed by the International Paralympic Committee, Paralympic Games is a multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities. The 16th Paralympic games this year will be held in Tokyo, Japan from 24th August onwards.
From the three Para sports played in the country, the Bhutan Paralympics Committee has high hopes on shot put events for short stature athletes. With the hope to represent Bhutan at the Tokyo Paralympic Games for the first time, the committee has been training their Para-athletes for over a year now.
One of them is 27-year-old Chimi Dema, who discovered Para-athletics games just two years ago. Since then, with support from the Paralympics committee, Chimi has featured in two international paralympic events held in China and Dubai.
“Paralympic game is a whole new thing for a person like me as I have never heard of it until 2019. Moreover, I saw the shot put event held during my school days. And for people like us, I did not have any idea that there are separate sports for us too. In the initial stages, I was worried about the game and about my ability to perform. But with constant training and support from the committee, now I think I can do it like any other people,” said Chimi.
Chimi did not take long to realize her full potential as she recently achieved the Minimum Qualifying Standard for the Paralympics in her debut tournament held in China. Minimum Qualifying Standard is one of the qualification criteria that athletes need to meet to compete at Paralympic games.
“Since we did not play any games during our childhood days, we are not able to perform and compete with international athletes. But for the paralympic games this year, I will give in my best,” added Chimi.
With two of the Para-athletes successfully achieving the Minimum Qualifying Standard in the last two years, Bhutan is very close to booking her ticket for Tokyo 2021. The other Para-athlete is Gyeltshen. He is currently injured and recovering.
“We can conduct and come up with many paralympic sports in the country for people with disabilities. But considering the current situation, we cannot train and send them for international events. For now, all we have is Chimi and Gyeltshen as they featured in two to three international events and achieved the minimum qualification standard. As such, we are doing all we can to train our two Para athletes and send them to the Tokyo Paralympic Games,” said Penjor Gyeltshen, Para Athlete Coach of the Paralympics Committee.
Since the establishment of the Bhutan Paralympic Committee in 2007, the committee has introduced three Para Sports in the country. The Para-athletes in Archery and Air Rifle Shooting event has not been successful in achieving the minimum qualification marks to participate in the paralympic events this time. This happened because there were limited games due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For now, no official confirmation has been made about Bhutan’s participation in the upcoming event. However, if there is a call-up, Chimi and Gyeltshen will certainly become the country’s first Para athletes to feature in the Tokyo Paralympic Games 2021.
Passang Dorji
