Former rugby player Chejon Fernandez had a great life, a promising career and a bright future.
The South African-born athlete lived in Greece, where everything came crashing down in a split second.
WATCH: Chejon Fernandez’s rise as a paralympic star
A rugby tackle leaves Fernandez in a wheelchair
A rugby tackle in a friendly match in Malta in 2001 caused him to suffer a C5/6/7 fracture, leaving him in a wheelchair.
After a spell in hospital, and thanks to intervention from family, friends and colleagues, Fernandez flew to South Africa to start his rehabilitation.
Not only did he have to learn how to navigate these new physical limitations, but he also had to come to terms with what his life now looked like.
Chejon decided to move back to Greece but found life much harder for someone in a wheelchair.
However, instead of breaking him, Chejon used his disability to change the course of his life.
Sports to the rescue
He decided to focus on sport and realised that sport may have caused him this life-changing injury, but that it would also be sport that would ultimately save him.
He decided to train mainly in category F53-54 shot put events, eventually becoming an elite Paralympian and winning numerous medals worldwide.
Chejon is not only a Paralympian sporting hero but also an inspiration to people worldwide.
Some of the highlights of his sporting career include:
- Carrying the Paralympic flag in the opening ceremony of the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games – Torchbearer Paralympic torch relay
- Gold Medal at the Paralympic Games in Rio, Brazil, new European Record 8,44 meters (Which he has held since 2007)
- Gold Medal World Championships Doha, Qatar, /2015
- Silver Medal International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports (IWAS) World Games, Bangalore, India, / 2009.
- 5th Place Paralympic Games Tokyo
- 4th Place World Championships Dubai 2019
- Bronze Medal Beijing Paralympics, Beijing, China, Silver Medal European Championships Berlin, Germany, / 2008
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