During the next two weeks, Alia Issa will prove that being bullied as a disabled child did not stop her from succeeding in her goal to become an athlete. She has arrived in Tokyo to compete in the Paralympics.
Twenty-year-old Alia was born in Greece of Syrian refugees. She is making history this summer as the first female para athlete to compete in the Games representing the Refugee Paralympic Team.
The bullying she endured started in early childhood after Alia contracted a virus that caused encephalitis and subsequent severe disability. She was four years old and spent months in physical therapy learning to move and talk all over again. However, she was left with permanent damage that did affect her mobility and slow her speech.
When she started school, her classmates mimicked and taunted her. She was excluded and had no friends. However, even as a small child, she was determined to learn, and play sports, and was encouraged in her activities by her parents, who provided her with a speech therapist and physical coaching. Unfortunately, Alia relapsed at age seven and needed to hospitalized once more. Further tragedy struck when she was sixteen; her father died of cancer. As well, one of her older sisters was struck with cancer (she survived).
Personally, I believe the one blessing in all of this is the close and loving relationship between Alia and her mother and siblings. They all supported each other through these traumatic times. Actually, there is another blessing: the strength of spirit that Alia possesses. She has been through a lot in her short life, and has managed to continue on regardless.
To learn more about Alia and her fellow para athletes, you can access news via the links below that lead to Think Redefined Inc. This is a sports news site hosted by Teddy Katz, an award-winning sports journalist who previously worked for 30 years at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
You can listen to his sports interviews here:
https://www.thinkredefined.com
About Alia Issa: