The story of Hamato, an armless tennis player. He plays with his bare foot to pick up the ball with his fingers

The story of Hamato, an armless tennis player. He plays with his bare foot to pick up the ball with his fingers

An athlete has become a Paralympic legend without winning a single match.

Meet Ibrahim Hamato, the world’s only armless tennis player. At the age of 10, he lost both of his arms in a tragedy, but despite all the difficulties, he continued to do what he loved and even conquered the Paralympics, making the whole world talk about him.

A true example that nothing is impossible

“I believe that the key factors of my success are my determination, hard work and perseverance to achieve a medal,” the athlete stated in an interview with an Egyptian publication.

Ibrahim Hamato was an ordinary boy from Egypt, in the third grade he tried table tennis for the first time but had an accident. He had both arms amputated above the elbow after Ibrahim was hit by a train. The boy stayed away from home for three years, learning to live again.

“I was watching two of my friends playing table tennis and shared my opinion about a controversial moment during the game. One of them then told me that I had no say in the game unless I played the sport. That’s when I decided to challenge myself and start playing table tennis.”

At first, the athlete tried to play with the racket under his arm, tried different variations, it took years of training to get used to it. In the end, the best way was to play with the racket in his mouth. However, another problem arose: how to toss the ball?

Ibrahim managed to solve this problem too – he plays with his barefoot right foot, picking up the ball with his toes as it flies over to his side.

The International Table Tennis Federation learned about the amazing Egyptian and invited him to the World Championships in Tokyo. There Ibrahim got the opportunity to play with the best of the best.

The athlete found wide popularity at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. At that time, he was already 43 years old, but despite this, Ibrahim’s colleagues repeatedly stated that he was in great shape.

The Tokyo Olympics was the second for the Egyptian in his career. He did not win a single match, but he became a symbol of overcoming and courage. The clips of Ibrahim’s game went viral and are still garnering millions of views across all platforms.

“I’m happy to be famous on the internet because it has helped a lot of people get out of the isolation they go through. And it has given many disabled people hope that nothing is impossible in life.”

Back home today, Ibrahim coaches juniors who have no arms. He realizes that it will be difficult for the boys to become champions, but by his example he shows that giving up is not an option.

“Disability is not about arms or legs, disability is that you can’t persist in doing what you would like to do.”