From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 5 September

Para athlete, Ntando Mahlangu of South Africa, is starring in a CITI television commercial. He says, “It’s okay, you can stare. If a four-time world record holder ran by, I would stare, too”.

IT the sort of dialogue which makes you stop and think.

A track and field competitor, Ntando Mahlangu was born with fibular hemi-melia; a congenital condition which affected both his legs from the knee down.

At the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, he won silver in the men’s 200 metres. In 2019, he qualified to represent South Africa at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo.

I watched the live telecast of the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Paralympics. Suddenly, and for no reason, there were tears running down my cheeks, and they were not tears of pity. They were tears of admiration which were exacerbated by commentators Johanna Griggs, together Kurt Fearnley, who has won 13 medals, including three gold, across five Paralympic Games, in events ranging from the 100-metre relay to the marathon; and Annabelle Williams, who won gold, silver and bronze at two Paralympic Games, and silver and bronze at two Commonwealth Games. She quipped about one US competitor, “I’ve have stood next her so often on the podium, I know the words to the American National Anthem.”

Watching the opening ceremony was, to put it simply, inspirational, in every aspect. Some people’s capacity to ignore their adversity, and to get on with their lives, is truly awesome. Never, should we underestimate the determination of the human spirit; the ability to win against the odds.

I have earned my living working in a business which is obsessed with body shape and physical beauty. So many times, I have heard a director/producer reject a performer because they were not deemed physically engaging for the audience.

I recall coming face-to-face with a legendary film star to record a television interview. She was truly pulchritudinous! Drop-dead beautiful! When I asked if she would mind removing her tinted glasses, she said, without a moment of hesitation, “I can’t. There will be a little mark on the either side of my nose from the glasses.”

I was momentarily flabbergasted. I smiled, wanly, and pretended not to have heard. I continued as though the conversation had never taken place.

It is hard to imagine, having depended for a career on physical prowess and the body’s shape and form, how one would cope with a physical disability, whether congenital or accident acquired.

Sadly, I have never worked in the theatre with a disabled actor. Those productions which called for a disabled actor, and in particular, A Day In The Death of Joe Egg, was cast with an actor performing the condition.

Both of the English television series, Vera, and Silent Witness, have disabled actors as part of the permanent cast. Like colour-blind casting, it is becoming a more regular, and less ground-breaking, happening.

American film and television has been more daring. Many disabled actors have had successful careers, including the Oscar nominated Linda Hunt for The Year of Living Dangerously.

Curtis McGrath, an Australian Paralympian at the Tokyo 2020 games, was serving as a combat engineer with the ADF in Afghanistan when stepped on an improvised explosive device. He lost his right leg above the knee, and his left below the knee. Fighting shock, blood loss, and excruciating pain, he made a vow that when he recovered he would represent his country at the Paralympic Games.

Only moths after starting in para-canoe, Curtis won a debut gold medal at the 2014 Sprint World Championships in Moscow; and then in Rio de Janeiro 2016 Paralympics, he won Australia’s first gold medal; and in 2016, was named Sportsman of the Year by World Paddle Awards. To date he has clocked ten world titles. He is a champion!

The Paralympics Tokyo 2020 is being broadcast live on Channel 7.

Roland can be heard with Brett Macdonald each Monday at 10.45am Radio 3BA, contact [email protected].