Riding on water

A month ago, Yeseo mastered the swim lane at the 18th Korean Para Games. She took home third place without any formal training. 

Let me repeat that: took home third place WITHOUT ANY FORMAL TRAINING!

Can I get a hurray?

She entered the competition solely on inner strength and her will to show others that living with a very rare disease doesn’t mean you can’t set goals for yourself.

Why swimming?

For Yeseo, swimming is a way to stay fit while trying to overcome obstacles, and to have a purpose in life. She’s mastering a life with Luscan-Lumish syndrome (LLS) one day at a time. One splash at a time. 

Life is never easy on anyone but having to deal with a disability must have major challenges. And LLS has different faces: 

FITNESS: she needs to keep working on her bodily strength with exercise and physical therapy, 

FOOD: the doctor warned her family not to let her overeat because obesity would only worsen her symptoms,

and

AUTHENTICITY: because LLS is an autism spectrum syndrome, Yeseo perceives things differently. Besides going to school, she needs therapy and does different types of exercises (read the interview with Yeseo here). But one can say that because of her disability, she can't be more authentic.

And boy, does she have spirit!

Athlete in the making

She is all smiles in pictures, she doesn’t want to feel sorry for herself just because she has LLS, and now she even managed to get herself a scholarship by winning third place during the championship! 

Did I mention that our swimming athlete is only 8 years old?

See her participation in the championship. 

She might be 1 in 11 people to have Luscan-Lumish syndrome but this girl is one of a kind for sure.

Proud mom

We heard from Yeseo's mother Jeong Sunim in the blog post The Heart Of A Mother. In this deeply moving post after the first day at the championship, you could feel her despair. She wants to give Yeseo all that she needs but that isn't always possible. Providing for formal swimming training is one of those things.

Which makes it absolutely mind-blowing that Yeseo won third place.

Here’s Sunim talking about her daughter's participation in the Para Games. You can turn on the automatic English subtitles by clicking on the three dots next to the short.

If you want to see more, follow her on youtube.

Flower riding on water

Zen master Seoong Sangsun once said:

 “When I gaze upon water, I become water. When I look at a flower, I become the flower. The flower riding on the water, yippee!” 

Here’s to Yeseo, the flower riding on the water!