“From the moment I landed in Paris, nothing went smoothly,” says judoka Shizuka Hangai. “On day one, I somehow got shingles, which no amount of rest cured. With just two days to go, I had no choice but to skip practice and thankfully got a little better. On the competition day itself, I went for it as I had trained, trying not to get caught up in the atmosphere. Somehow, it worked out. When the semifinal went to golden score, I had two shido and was on the verge of losing, but I waited for my chance. I think going with my gut led to the silver medal.”

After Paris, Hangai says, “I have fallen even more in love with Judo. I want to dig deeper, get better, and keep doing Judo for many years to come.” Following the advice of Coach Yuko Isozaki, on the day before competing, Hangai decided to practice with a heavier partner, which made it easier to judge the center of gravity and contributed to her success.

Given her impaired vision, Hangai also had a unique question for the other medalists: “What goes through your mind while you’re up on the podium? I couldn’t see the flag being raised, so I wondered how to enjoy the moment.” When another Japanese athlete won gold the next day, Hangai says she “cried in the stands” on hearing the national anthem. “I wanted to have it played for me too.” See the GTTA responses to her question here.

“When you [host Kyonosuke Morita] interviewed me and were so thrilled to see the medal, that brought me real comfort,” tells Takuya Miki. “Despite the disappointment, I felt I could still get better. Being my fourth Paralympics and having missed out on bronze at Rio 2016… all of those feelings made it a really intense week. I've never had such a feeling of disappointment burning inside me. I went hard in practice this morning. Since that moment, I just want to play more tennis.”

In singles, Miki was defeated in the third round. Although he went on to win silver in doubles, even on the podium, he could not hide his disappointment. However, he seemed to have put that behind him in the studio, recounting an ill-timed cheer from the Toyota Times staff during the semifinals. “Never before had cheering made me nervous,” he said with a laugh.

The week after our broadcast, Miki was off to a tournament in Italy. “I’m going to focus on winning each game and improving my ranking,” he says. See Miki talk about his intense Paris experience here.

“The Marathon course was really tough,” recalls Tomoki Suzuki, “with roads unlike any I had raced on before. They were narrow, and near the finish, the section around the Arc de Triomphe was about 5 kilometers of cobblestones. The racers were steadily winnowed out as we went. Wheelchairs don’t have suspension or anything, so you constantly feel the vibration. I nearly did my back in.”

Suzuki persevered through a grueling 42.195 km to claim the bronze. To pursue the racer in front of him, he chose to go it alone, pushing his body to the limit. Only after passing the 30km mark did he begin to feel that a medal might be in the cards. Prompted by Miki, Suzuki recounted his mindset during the race here.

As for how he rated his performance: “If I gave myself a score of 100, there’d be no room for improvement. I went with 80 because I expect to do better than bronze in four years.” Suzuki has already started working toward that goal, with the Chicago Marathon coming up in October.

“Being my first Games, I went in with some doubts,” reflects Shunya Takahashi. “But showing what I can do in front of 50,000 people at the Stade de France has given me a lot of confidence. I now feel I have a shot at a medal in four years. I can't wait for the next Paralympics.”

Despite having played at Koshien, Japan’s pinnacle of high school baseball, Takahashi was blown away by the Paralympic atmosphere. He channeled that excitement into every throw, finishing in sixth place.

Several times during the event’s TV broadcast, Morita could be seen cheering nearby, which led some to mistake him for Takahashi’s coach. In the studio, Takahashi, who also showed growing confidence on camera, shared an anecdote that involved him getting caught in the closing doors of a Paris subway train (watch here).

For silver medalist Okada, the race was a literal case of smooth sailing: “To a certain extent, I went in with a strategy, and things mostly panned out as expected.” He is determined to do one medal better next time, but first, another big role awaits: reciting the athletes’ oath at the National Sports Festival in Saga Prefecture.

By contrast, the Rugby Sevens team failed to notch up any wins. Even so, Kippei Taninaka was upbeat, commenting that “the Olympic atmosphere, the strength of our opponents, all of it made the Games a wonderful experience.” He vowed to continue working hard after returning to his regular team.

For Tomoki Ota, even getting to the starting line of the 10000m looked doubtful due to injury. He managed to complete the race, saying, “Though it wasn’t the result I hoped for, I had fun.” The livestream chat featured some good-natured teasing from long jumper Hajimu Ashida, who attended Ota’s university and was a member of Toyota’s Para Athletics team. Ota also suggested he might take on the marathon, and we look forward to following his journey.

Whether they managed to shine on the big stage in Paris or left with some disappointments, all the athletes were eager to tackle their next challenge. Hosts Kyonosuke Morita and Naho Miyoshi also worked hard delivering daily reports from the Games. Check out the video archive to relive those special memories of the Paris summer.

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