Man in wheelchair climbs mountain
On December 9 in 2011, champion rock-climber Lai Chi-wai suffered a motorcycle accident that left him paralysed from the waste down. On the same day, five years later, he climbed Hong Kong's iconic Lion Rock once again, this time in a wheelchair.
Thirty-three-year-old Lai Chi-wai is a four-time winner of the Asian Rock Climbing Championships, but on a fateful day, five years ago, his promising athletic career seemed to be over, following a devastating motorcycle accident. “When I woke up, I was already in the hospital and had been operated on. The staff told me … I was paralysed from the waist down and would be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life,” the young rock climber recalls.
For his family and friends, the tragic outcome of the accident meant that he could no longer do the one thing that truly gave him a feeling of fulfillment – climbing heights. But despite losing the use of his legs, Lai Chi-wai wasn't ready to give up on his passion.
After recovering from the accident, he took up wheelchair boxing, a relatively new sport that he claims improves mental focus and physical fitness of paraplegics and increases their confidence, but he also continued to train with his old mountain climber friends.
The birth of his son inspired Lai Chi-wai to pursue his passion even more. And in 2014, he vowed to climb Lion Rock once again, this time in a wheel chair. The announcement caused concern among his friends, because something like that had never been done before. But they all agreed that if someone could scale the 495-meter-high mountain in a wheelchair, it would have to be him.
And on December 9th, 2016, Lai Chi-wai fulfilled his promise and became the first paraplegic to climb all the way to the granite top of Lion Rock. “Breaking news, wheelchair discovered on Lion Rock,” the young athlete wrote on his Facebook page. “I've fulfilled my goal. I said I would climb Lion Rock, and I've done it now! In the middle of the night on December 9, 2011, I got into a traffic accident and had to undergo emergency surgery. Five years later, I climbed to the top of Lion Rock! Once again, I'm sitting on the mountaintop.”
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