Woman athlete aims high in 2020 Paralympics
ANTALYA- Demirören News Agency
Hamide Doğangün, who has already competed twice in the Paralympics, hopes to get a medal in the upcoming 2020 Tokyo games.
Doğangün suffered from paraplegia at the age of nine after a traffic accident. Following a two-year treatment in the hospital, she was discharged in a wheelchair.
Her mother did not want her to stay home all the time, encouraging Doğangün to go out to have a social life.
Following her mother’s advice, she first started to play basketball.
Determined that the wheelchair should not confine her to her house, Doğangün started in the athletics branch after playing basketball for two years.
Doğangün, who became successful in athletics in a short time, won the gold medal in 2008 at the Turkey Championship.
Underlining that her mother made great contributions to her success, Doğangün explained that the reason behind her starting athletics was her mother.
Also emphasizing that her life has changed with the success in sports as a person with disabilities, Doğangün complained that Paralympic athleticism is not known much in Turkey.
“Even now they are asking how my wheelchair is going,” she says.
Listing the successes she has achieved so far, Doğangün said she will return from Tokyo with a medal.
“I am the first female Turkish athlete to attend the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games. I ran in the final and came fourth. In Tokyo, I will wave my flag and crown my achievement with a medal,” she said.
