Hong Kong wheelchair athlete to go for gold again
Boccia champion Leung Yuk-wing heads to Rio Paralympics for another throw at glory in a sport that has changed his life and brought tears of joy
Boccia gold medallist Leung Yuk-wing remembers the first time he went overseas for a competition. It was to Greece, for the Athens Paralympics in 2004.
“When we got to the Paralympic Village, I noticed people from all around the world settling in, going about their business – but everyone was like me, in a wheelchair. It was so funny,” he says.
When Leung was young, he was uncomfortable at the way people would look at him.
He was born with arthrogryposis, the condition that describes congenital joint contractures.
He grew up quiet, not liking to go out, and found life, which involved many hospital trips, frustrating and unfair.
That changed when he started playing boccia at school.