He's hands down a true champion
By Jennani Durai
12 Nov 2011, The Straits Times
Paralysed handcyclist, who survived 7 bullet wounds, aims to inspire disabled by pitting skills against the able-bodied
SIX years ago, in a small American town, Mr Foo Fung Liang was shot seven times by an assailant armed with a .22 semi-automatic pistol.
Emergency room doctors had not expected him to survive, but he did - although the 40-year-old remains paralysed from his abdomen down, and still has four bullets lodged in his spine and chest.
More than just pulling through, Mr Foo has gone on to don Singapore colours in a sport not many have heard of - handcycling.
The athlete heads the Handcycling Association of Singapore, coaches young disabled athletes in the sport, and considers it his mission to spread the word among them that they can do it.
True to his word, he will race Mr Bobby Bostic today - and Mr Bostic is an able-bodied cyclist who will power his much-lighter race bicycle the usual way.
A handcycle weighs 13.5kg, twice as heavy as a normal bike.
Mr Foo, who represented Singapore at the Asian Para Games last year, is one of six disabled athletes who will go head-to- head against able-bodied marathoners, triathletes and cyclists on the track around the F1 Pit Building.
This is part of Wheelathon360, Singapore's first wheelchair and handcycling sports community event, held to spread the message that disabled athletes can compete alongside able-bodied ones.
'Being disabled should not disqualify you from being in sport, and I've shown that for the last four years,' he said.
The event will raise funds for equipment for disabled athletes and for programmes to introduce handicapped children to sport. It is organised by sports events company HiVelocity, whose director Adrian Mok is among the endurance athletes racing against disabled athletes.
Mr Mok said the event hopes to promote integration between disabled and able-bodied athletes and change people's mindsets about what disabled athletes are capable of. Referring to the head-to-head races, Mr Mok said: 'I really think the winning margins will not be very big.'
Mr Foo added: 'We hope to show them that, given the right resources, they can compete with able-bodied people.'
The 2004 shooting which left him paralysed took place in the town of Ferriday in the American state of Louisiana. Then hired as a designer for a restaurant, he and two others were closing the place for the day when the robber turned up and opened fire.
The case has stayed unsolved. Louisiana's police have had no luck tracking down the suspect that Mr Foo picked from a line-up. With him back here now, the investigations have not been taken any further.
During his period of recovery, the former competitive tennis player sank into depression when he knew he would never walk again, but handcycling rekindled the spark for life in him.
Seated in a handcycle and powering himself along, he said it was the first time he did not feel disabled. 'I found it liberating,' he said. He trained for two months and took part in the Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore triathlon in 2007 as a member of a relay team. He was supposed to cover his 90km leg of the race in his handcycle in five hours.
'I took around 5-1/2. They disqualified me,' he said, laughing.
Undeterred, he returned the next year and finished the race; he has since completed it thrice.
He acknowledges the mental barrier can loom large at first, but he overcame it in the belief that sport is even more important for disabled people than for the able-bodied. 'Through sport, not only can we gain confidence and self-esteem, but the health benefits are also more relevant to disabled people, as our immune systems are not as strong. So it's more important to stay active,' he said.
Spreading this message to disabled people is close to his heart. He said: 'I want other disabled people to know they can do a lot more than they think they can, and that sport can help them do it.'
This is a man to whom the Louisiana surgeon, surveying his horrific injuries, had said: 'You're really not supposed to still be here.'
Mr Foo said: 'I've been told repeatedly that it's a miracle I'm alive, that there is a reason my time is not up yet. So maybe this is my calling.'
