Paralympic Heartbreak: Yu Cuiyi’s Agonizing Near-Miss and Her Quest for Redemption
Yu Cuiyi Misses Medal in Women’s Foil A-Level Individual Competition
Yu Cuiyi, the ”Wheelchair Fencing Queen,” lost her bronze medal match at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Women’s Foil A-Level Individual Competition on Thursday, missing the medal. Despite her disappointment, Yu Cuiyi lamented that the most regrettable thing was not being able to bring out the best in herself.
Yu Cuiyi, the No. 3 seed, won two consecutive games in the women’s individual competition. She lost to Chinese star Gu Haiyan 13:15 in the top four and then narrowly defeated the host swordsman in the rematch match with 1 sword. However, she lost the bronze medal match 11:15 to Spain’s fifth-seeded fencer and missed the podium.
Yu Cuiyi took off her mask and still smiled during the interview. She lamented, “I did a good job in every game today. The top four never thought the score could be so close, but I didn’t handle my mentality well enough; I couldn’t beat the French fencer.” She felt the power of the home court and the referee’s judgment was a bit strange, but she stood up to it. During the bronze medal match, she seemed unable to maintain her persistence.
Yu Cuiyi continued that the reason for her pity is not just the ranking, “I think it is not a technical problem, but some psychological barriers that have not been crossed. It is a pity that I could not bring a bronze medal to Hong Kong. The most pity is that I did not show my best. But the game is like this. I have to face these hurdles every day, and I think it’s more difficult than practicing skills.”
Since competing in the Athens Paralympic Games in 2004, Yu Cuiyi has won 12 Paralympic medals over the years, 8 of which were individual medals. Three years ago, she failed to win any medals at the Tokyo Paralympic Games for the first time. She pointed out that there have been many changes in her mentality in recent years, “After looking back at the Tokyo Paralympics, I feel that it is not difficult to compete in the Paris Paralympics, but in recent years, I have been questioning myself, can I still stand on the world stage?”
Yu Cuiyi deliberately “retreated” before this year’s competition. She admitted frankly that as both herself and the outside world have expectations for competing in the Paralympics, it will inevitably become a pressure. She tried not to be interviewed or contact social media before the competition, “I know that everyone wants us well, which is a good thing, but sometimes those expectations put a lot of pressure on me. I have not yet achieved the ‘you can do it’ Yu Cuiyi in everyone’s mind, so I have to go back and summarize it, think about how to solve this mental state.”
Yu Cuiyi, Fan Peishan, Tong Yating, and Zhong Wanping will compete in the foil team competition on Thursday. The Hong Kong team will compete with Ukraine in the top 8 at 5:30 pm Hong Kong time.
Image: Vincent
Related Topics
- Yu Cuiyi
- Wheelchair Fencing
- Paralympic Games
- Paris Paralympics