An inspiring story from China’s “Basketball Girl”

If this doesn't touch your heart, I doubt anything ever will. At first glance, she looks like any other beautiful teenager enjoying life without a care in the world.

Qian Hongyan is a 18-year-old girl who lives in China

But the story of Qian Hongyan, a girl from Luliang country in Yunnan, China, is a classic example of how determination can overcome overwhelmng odds.

At age of 4, Qian lost both her legs when she was hit by a speeding truck while crossing busy road in Zhuanshang. For about two years Hongyan didn’t have the strength in her body to sit up in a wheelchair. 

Doctors told her if she wanted to be able to move again they would have to perform major surgery that would allow her to be fitted with prosthetic limbs. 

Doctors did not think she would live after they had no other choice but to cut off below the waist. Her parents struggled for the first month to come up with a way of moving Hongyan around. So her grandfather improvised using a basketball cut in half and two wooden handles to move her around. 

The locals began calling her "basketball girl".

Qian joined a local swimming club for the disabled

In 2005, after attention in the Chinese press, Qian traveled to Beijing to receive free artificial limbs at the China Rehabilitation Research Center, a center that has been providing help to the disabled in China for over 20 years.

However, Qian found other opportunities. She joined a local swimming club for the disabled, the first of its kind in the country, sponsored by the Yunnan Provincial Federation of the Disabled. At first, she found it difficult.

"I had to give much more than other kids when I learned to swim," Qian said. "It seemed there was no way I could float in the water. I was choked".

Her success may mark the changing fortunes of China's disabled

Qian swims about 2000 meters a day and trains really hard. "Qian Hongyan studies hard. She never grouches in training although she was confronted with many difficulties at the beginning “her coach said.

Her disability didn’t stop her from winning one gold and two silver medals at the 2009 National Swimming Championship for the Disabled, and taking home three silvers the following year.

Now 18 years old, she is ready for her adult prosthetics. Qian Hongyan, the so-called "basketball girl," has become something of a celebrity in China. 

Reports on the progress of her artificial limbs make national news. Hongyan is no longer a “basketball girl” as she can now walk with prosthetic limbs, thanks to people’s donations.

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