Grab the handle of the ping-pong racket with your mouth, throw the ball up with your right toe, and then twist your neck to return the ball. Egypt’s armless table tennis player Hammato this morning in the Tokyo Paralympics table tennis TT6 group stage, although 0 to 3 lost to the Chinese player Chen Chao, but Hammato has become a Paralympic Paralympic Paralympic body, breaking through the limits of the inspirational athlete representative. Hamato was born on July 1, 1973, in Dumyat, northern Egypt. He lost both his arms in a train accident at the age of 10, when he fell into a gap between a train and a platform and both were amputated. He did not sink into the disaster, he loved sports, at that time, his hometown mainly carried out football and table tennis. Hamato plays both football and table tennis. For him, who has lost his arms, playing football is relatively easy, but playing table tennis is a great challenge. From then on, Hamato began to practice table tennis. Because of the loss of his arms, he initially tried to play with a racket under his arm, but the results were not satisfactory. Later, he chose to bite the racket with his mouth to play table tennis, which made him feel more flexible. It took him nearly a year to practice and get used to serving and returning the racket with his mouth. The more I practiced, the more I played, the better I got. “To play with the racket in my mouth, I need to constantly strengthen my legs because I rely on my legs more than any other player. My neck also needs to be strengthened, as do my teeth, and the racquet can’t move between my teeth, otherwise the ball will be very unstable. With perseverance and countless days and nights of training, he improved day by day. After making his professional debut with a mouth-bite racket in Cairo in 2004, he began to make his mark in para table tennis, finishing second at the African Para Table Tennis Championships in 2011 and 2013. In 2013, he was named the best athlete in Africa, which is a great honor for him.
At the 2016 African Paralympics Championships, Hamato finished second again to qualify for the 2016 Rio Paralympics. In Rio, he finished 9th in the team event and 11th in the TT6 individual event. For Hamatto, making it to the Paralympics is a victory. His unique way of playing became a star athlete at the Rio Paralympics. “The moment he served, he won everyone’s respect,” said one user.
