The 2023 National Disabled Swimming Championships kicks off in Hangzhou, and the award bouquet is unusual this time!
“Every human life can shine brightly.”
On June 30, the 2023 National Swimming Championships for the Disabled with “Charm of Hangzhou” kicked off in the swimming pool of Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center. 225 disabled athletes from 25 national teams overcame many difficulties and “swimmed” straight ahead.
A bouquet of flowers on the podium made this event even more moving.
The awarding bouquet “Light of Life” is hand-made by a disabled florist
This bouquet of flowers is called “Light of Life”, and it is one of the awarding materials for this competition. Every athlete who wins a medal will be accompanied by it.
“Light of Life” was designed and produced by Jin Bo, the first disabled florist to win the honorary title of “Hangzhou Craftsman”, which means “everyone’s life can shine brilliantly”.
The bouquet uses sunflowers, which symbolize sunshine, and carnations, which symbolize health, as the main flower materials and are combined with two eucalyptus of different lengths to form a “V” shape as embellishment, symbolizing every athlete who is actively struggling and moving forward All winners.
Swimming is one of the eight sports of the first Paralympic Games in 1960. It has wide applicability, and athletes with visual disabilities, physical disabilities, or intellectual disabilities can participate.
Athletes with visual disabilities can grasp the direction of swimming and complete the competition through the touch of the waterline and can develop a keen sense of touch and hearing to make up for the lack of vision; athletes with physical disabilities can improve their balance and strengthen their limbs through swimming; Athletes with intellectual disabilities can improve self-control through the stimulation of swimming action.
The 2023 National Swimming Championships for the Disabled will have six major events, including men’s and women’s freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly, backstroke, medley, and relay. Disabled swimming competitions need to set competition events according to the level of disability. Each major event will be based on the “National Measures for the Classification and Management of Sports Events for the Disabled” is divided into several sub-items, so the number of medals produced is even greater. It is estimated that as many as 140 gold medals will be produced for gold medals alone.
Nearly 500 award-giving bouquets, each made by a disabled florist.
In order to ensure the freshness of the award bouquets, the flower materials used were directly airlifted from the Kunming base to Hangzhou and were stored in professional fresh-keeping boxes on the way to the venue.
At the awards ceremony, “Light of Life” was loved by many people.
“Disabled athletes overcome many difficulties and fight tenaciously not only for medals but also for their own efforts to gain equality and respect during the competition.” Lu Ying, the person in charge of the award ceremony, said: “This spirit is just like the award bouquet Like the ‘Light of Life’, it inspires each of our athletes and staff participating in the Hangzhou Asian Games and Asian Paralympic Games to strive for the first and ‘swim’ to move forward.”