My Mum Is a World and Paralympics Champion

Vladislav Vassiliev Grade 10, Gymnasia 7, Volgograd

Teacher: Marina Tifanova

Inspiring Personality• My mum is a person with a hardened character.

Every time while watching her getting up at 6.00 and leaving for her training I admire her will power! For me, she’s a tremendous model of how to overcome hardships in life and how to persistently go to a cherished goal!

• Sport makes a personality out of a person and my mum isn’t an exception. She’s kind, sincere and understanding and she’s a strong woman in all the senses of the word.

Victorious Life

• In 1989 she finished school and went to Volgograd Power Engineering College.

• In 1991 after finishing college she entered Volgograd State Academy of Physical Culture.

• My mum (in the middle in the photo) was born with no hand on October 6, 1971 in Volgograd.

• In 1983 at the age of 12 she decided to take up sprinting.

Sports Career Beginning

Year Sporting Event Country Distance Place

1992 Paralympics Italy 200 2nd 1994 World Championship Germany 100

200400

3rd RecordRecord

1996 Paralympics USA 100 200

5th 6th

Lioubov VassilievaRussia (RUS)

Safety in Numbers

• In December 1997 she started training for the 1998 World Championship in Birmingham, England.

• Mum met my dad and I was born in October 1997.

• Mum’s coaches have beenValentin Belkin (1983-1990), Ivan Dolgov (1990-2004),Andrey Grigoryev (2004-

2009).

Career Achievements

Year Sporting Event Country Distance Place

1998 World Championship England 400 200

2nd 3rd

2000 Paralympics Australia 400 200

1st 2nd

2002 World Championship France 800 400

Record

Record2003 World Championship Holland 400

2001st 3rd

2006 World Championship Holland 400 3rd

There Is a Way!• My mum’s example made me

look at people with disabilities in a different way.

• I regard such people as deserving the greatest respect and consider them to be the strongest people in the world.

• Physically challenged people are actually not like others. They do not have something that you and I have, but we’ll never understand how hard it is for them to achieve their goals, how many efforts, how much persistence and work is needed for that!