2021 Paralympic Sports Awards 🏆 | Paralympic Games

[Music] hello and welcome to the 2021 paralympic awards my name is andy stevenson i'm a tv and radio broadcaster and host of the official paralympic podcast a winning mindset but for this show i need a co-host and what a co-host i have with 17 paralympic medals between us it's g'day to australian superstar swimmer ellie cole thanks andy it's so lovely to be here to celebrate our paralympians and a brilliant year it's fantastic to have you with me ellie and for the next 45 minutes or so we'll be focusing on what's been a brilliant year in paris sport yes we'll be looking back on an amazing 2021 featuring the rearranged tokyo 2020 paralympic games and we'll be recognizing the performances of our paralympic athletes and also officials who made it all happen we'll be handing out seven awards including the bp courage award which as its title suggests will be presented to someone who displayed immense courage and determination just to reach tokyo 2020 we're also going to be hearing from a special guest who will hand out some alternative awards which sounds intriguing certainly does but first let's get you in the mood by reliving the 13 incredible days of sport we enjoyed in japan welcome to the tokyo 2020 paralympic games here we are and i think it all starts with just not being afraid to dream they call me a fighter this is my life [Music] [Applause] [Music] got no limits i got no fears only got my blood my sweat and my teeth [Music] i [Music] am a fighter [Music] [Music] i rise up [Music] like [Music] our eyes i am [Music] [Music] the tokyo 2020 paralympic games have not just been historic they have been fantastic to the people of japan you made this possible we love you [Music] well that was a reminder of just how unique and wonderful the tokyo 2020 paralympics were especially when you consider what we've all gone through over the last couple of years just to get the games on at all was a huge achievement but without further ado let's get into the awards we'll start with best male debut given to the man who made the biggest impact in his first paralympics here are the nominees nick mayhew in the middle there you can see him streaming away the american down the middle there he's beaten his own world record a new world record [Music] what does the future hold for that man there nick mayhew [Music] pesca has just become the czech republic's first ever botcher paralympic champion dan's gonna get there and in world record time as well reece dunn looking really strong here leading great britain out and they can celebrate not only a gold medal but a world record as well a really strong trio of nominees but the winner of the award for the best male debut is adam pesca [Music] and he has just become the czech republic's first ever botcher paralympic champion here in tokyo [Music] very important so one of the best feelings in his sports career and he would like to thank to our national paralympic committee and all supporters yes participation at paralympics was one of his highest dreams i was a little nervous but i felt that i need to play like there's no tomorrow greg is so experienced player and he's he was number one for many years i just went to enjoy that match [Music] i would like to tell to others that if you got a dream never surrender a deway to the dream i would like to thanks again to my opponents because they were a great inspiration for me first feeling about that medal was that heavy for athletes with my disability that's really heavy medal but that matter is paid off for hundreds of hours of training and that's inspiration for other athletes in our country [Music] there is a lot of other medals but this is a special one that was a great feeling which person do you want to have closer than your mother when you get uh so big success like paralympic medal that was um same dream for me and for my mother [Music] i it's lovely to hear from adam pesca there and congratulations to him and to his mom ivana who as we saw there is his assistant during the bc3 bocha competition thanks and well done also to adam's coach robert cravan for doing the english translation on that acceptance speech yes it's such a skillful sport butcher you need great accuracy clever tactics and nerves of steel and we saw a couple of brilliant shots in that highlights reel from adam and to beat the great greg polychronides of greece was quite something next up is the award for best female debut let's take a look at the nominees dominance [Applause] [Music] they take the gold medal for indonesia [Music] sabatini on the outside and will be the youngest of the three italians 17 he will take the gold medal [Music] with a total score of 249.6 black hora set a new paralympic record to win gold at her first paralympic games again three really strong contenders there all making their first appearance at a paralympics and the winner of the award for the best female debut is ivani likara [Music] it's an honor for me to win this award the focus was you know always on giving my best shot and you know bringing home medals for my country and showing that you know we can anything is possible with hard work uh dedication and passion i would also like to thank my parents my support staff my mentors and the government of india i went there and i just thought take one shot at a time and that's what i did just keeping my focus on my process i i was able to win a gold medal for my country it's like everything was like a dream come true for me at that time and when i came back to india i met a lot of people i ever i went to my own school and then i saw a little kids you know they they came up to me and they were they were like we are inspired by you and we want also want to do best best for the country we want to take up any sport it's like amazing but with success uh the responsibility also comes the indian gold in the 10 meter air rifle standing competition and a second medal for this 19 year old from jaipur i became the first female to win two medals uh in in a single paralympic games and then becoming the first flag bearer from from our country in the closing ceremony it brought out a lot of you know women empowerment thing in our country that you know females are also there and they can also go out and win medals and also especially the people with disability because i got a lot of messages from people and they said that you know because of you we feel like not giving up and we we can also do something and that's that's how that is what mattered to me a lot i want to keep keep them as close to me as possible now i'm obsessed with them well done to ivani likara she's only 20 years old the first indian woman ever to win a paralympic gold medal and as she touched on there she has a real potential to make a difference to attitudes towards disability and the paralympics in india yes a real history maker and it appears as though before the games avani and her teammates weren't at a five-star workout facility either more boot camp than training camp the coaches put the shooters through a regime involving loud music random people shouting at them and my favorite barking like dogs to try to put them off it definitely worked though because avani in particular showed great focus and concentration ellie i think you've got a dog there with you now have you ever had your dog barking away whilst you're training at the swimming pool i haven't had my dog barking away but if it means i can bring my dog to training i'm off for that and what about music do you have music playing while you're training as well i do enjoy a bit of abba i also enjoy a little bit of celine dion i think i'm the only person under the age of 50 that really gets into celine dion um but yeah you have to be really careful about what you play around pool deck because i'm just going to stop at the end of the wall and start singing [Music] wow celine's a bit of an icon and we're going to look into icons and celebrations and a diva thrown in as well here because we're delighted to welcome a guest presenter who gave ellie here a run for her money as one of the stars of tokyo 2020. yes anastasia pogonis lit up the swimming pool with her performances for the usa in the s11 class she came home with a gold and bronze medal at just 17 years of age but anastasia is also a social media superstar with 2.3 million followers on tick tock and another quarter of a million on instagram andy that is 10 of the population of australia isn't that impressive yeah that's not bad i'm still trying to work out what tic toc is to be honest i'm too old for all this but yeah anastasia does it pretty well i have to say well i have missed the tick tock and the snapchat boat but given her profile we've asked anastasia to come on and give us a different view of the games and to hand out a few alternative awards hey y'all it's anastasia pagoda's paralympic gold and bronze medalist for team usa and swimming and i'm here to you know break up some of the excitement of the 2021 paralympic awards so let's get into it [Music] although there were no spectators in the 2021 paralympics us athletes had to get a little creative on showing the world what makes us us [Music] since i'm a swimmer i wasn't able to wear makeup or do some crazy hairstyles because well i'm in the pool and i'm wearing a cap so i had to think a little bit outside of the box so i did my nails red white and blue while i was there and i wore these super cool painted usa goggles in the classification that i'm in we all have to wear blacked out goggles and i was like ew like i don't want to just wear like black goggles i'm going to look like a fly so i had to make it a little extra so fun being able to tell like how someone's personality is through their hair and through their makeup and through what they're wearing because you really get to know a little bit about them at the tokyo paralympic games i'd say a lot of us did a pretty sick job with it big thank you to anastasia pagonus who will hear more from later in the show now as we know the games cannot happen without thousands of people working hard before during and after them especially this time in tokyo we all got an incredible welcome from the volunteers who couldn't have been kinder or friendlier aragato to all of you i couldn't agree with you more andy and when it comes to the sport we rely on team staff members to look after us our chef do missions our doctors our physios media officers everyone pulling in the same direction as well as officials to run our events fairly and successfully so tonight we are giving an award for the best official here are the nominees [Music] [Music] [Music] and the winner of the best official award is germany's team doctor dr anya hershmaller to give some background to this award the german and belgian teams had shared facilities at the athletes village in tokyo and dr hersh muller came back one day to find an athlete was having difficulties she realised it was a cardiac emergency and she acted immediately giving potentially life-saving treatment and she only found out afterwards that the athlete was belgian yokin gerard one of the world's best wheelchair tennis players the very good news is that he has been able to return to training and he has just announced a few weeks ago that he is aiming to compete at the january's australian open which gives me a fantastic excuse to get down to melbourne [Music] to be given such an honor and of course i right away think about all those people who have been involved in my way in this paralympic family that were like all those emotions coming up straight straight when i when i heard about it so i'm really i'm really impressed and very grateful to to all the people who have been working for this and who have given me this honor i've been hearing from his um team physician that he restarted training so that i i knew that but i didn't know that he's really already really returned to competition level yet so that he might compete at the australian open which is is perfect news thank you many congratulations to dr hirsch muller quick thinking and all of her medical know-how thankfully being in the right place at the right time i'm sure though that she was helped by lots of other people too and that sense of teamwork leads us nicely into our next award for best team here are the nominees that is just raw power [Music] united states of america have taken gold here the tokyo 2020 paralympic games [Music] the hooter goes and great britain have won the gold medal [Applause] they've achieved immortality they are the gold medalists of the 2000 2020 tokyo paralympics [Music] [Applause] [Music] well three brilliant team efforts there but as a brit myself i'm delighted to say that the winner of the award for best team is the great britain wheelchair rugby squad [Music] sue robinson gets what may be the final try of this gold medal match the gold medal match the gb have shot the wheelchair rugby world with the hooter goes and great britain have won the gold medal the main thing was winning winning the gold but it's been really nice or getting this extra recognition for how hard we would sort of work and some of the challenges that we've been able to overcome and that's something that i guess now reflecting back on it it's really nice that other people can sort of share in that a little bit as well [Music] honestly it's like the first thing that everyone says is how heavy it is and it really is a lump of battle but it's brilliant to get it's that sort of tangible thing that shows all the work that you've done over those past four or five years that makes it worthwhile i guess britain came to these games daring to be great they secured the first medal in european history honestly it was just sort of winning the tournament was the big thing and celebrating with my teammates and then you sort of realize all the other things that come into the first paralympics gb teams bought to win a gold medal we were the first european team to win wheelchair rugby gold at any major tournament we had the first female athlete that won a gold medal in wheelchair rugby as well so there was a number of extra things i guess but as an athlete just focusing on the actual winnings was the main one but it's nice to see see all the other stuff coming as well it's not just the guys the 12 that were there obviously gb wheelchair rugby has been going a long time before me and it'll be going a long time after so it was a big thank you to all those people that sort of started this journey off for us i guess and then like a massive thank you to my teammates and the wider team the coaching staff and the support team that we've got that have all stuck behind us and sort of really believed in us that we could go and do this winning this part of the team is such a lovely feeling because it's something bigger than any one of us could have done and that's something really special that they don't want to be able to take away from it they've achieved immortality they are the gold medalists of the 2020 tokyo paralympics congratulations to great britain's wheelchair rugby squad the first ever european nation to win the paralympic title beating the firm favourites usa 54-49 in the final and a word two for kylie grimes the first woman ever to claim gold in wheelchair rugby once again the paralympics showing the way forward with equality and inclusivity and now it's my pleasure to introduce a video message from the person leading that push for inclusivity the president of the international paralympic committee andrew parsons thank you ellie for those kind words hello everyone although it is great to be joining you for the 2021 paralympic awards you both know that i much prefer for us to be together in person celebrating these achievements properly what can i say tokyo 2020 was tremendous and probably the most challenging paralympic games we'll ever have to deliver the sport was absolutely remarkable and after difficult 18 months due to the pandemic i was absolutely delighted to see a record number of athletes competing in the japanese capital there were many highlights from these games the stunning ceremonies the wonderful volunteers the two afghani athletes competing the sixth strong paralympic refugee team just to name a few but what stood out to me was the quality of the sport the level of competitiveness across all sports was superb and i was blown away by the emergence of so much young talent winning medals from the bottom of my heart thank you to every single athlete and official who depart and everyone who made these games possible as you can imagine deciding the winners of the 2021 berlin pick awards was not easy for the ipc governing board and we would like to send our congratulations to every single nominee and winner finally about an important highlight of toku 2020 was the launch of with the 15 which aspires to be the biggest human rights movement to represent the world's 1.2 billion persons with disability change starts with sport and if we can change the world for 1.2 billion people through the 15 then we are going some way to achieve our vision to make for an inclusive role through periscope and the ali back to you and continuing the theme of inclusion as the president andrew parsons mentioned there this year saw the international paralympic committee joining forces with numerous organizations around the world to launch the we the 15 campaign the 15 refers to the 15 of people across the planet who have a disability and in simple terms the campaign gives the message that persons with disabilities don't need your pity they deserve your respect this short film explains more you're such an inspiration it breaks my heart you are superheroes really yeah we're superheroes all right forgetting the kids out the door on time we have more beginnings yeah that's some of two races we met on a blind bag we can laugh at ourselves too so why the pedestals are not i'm the pity tolerated only when you see us and we all break down these barriers [Music] [Music] [Music] today we turn our attention away from sport to the future away from athletes to the global population of persons with disabilities over 1 billion people 15 of the world we the 15 is a global movement for change that says persons with disabilities must be seen heard active and included a movement to make the world fairer more just and more equitable before the paralympic flame is extinguished it will pass its light to a new movement the world's biggest organizations are converging to champion with 15. you create policy to build momentum to bring about a day where no one is held back from achievement derided or excluded a day when we'll look at people different from ourselves and see only our shared humanity because when that day comes we will look back on this moment and say when the floodlights went out and the cameras stopped rolling that's when the change began [Music] a really important message andy and the numbers around the we the 15 campaign are mind-boggling three-quarters of a billion people watch the campaign film two and a half billion impressions of the hashtag weather15 on twitter 225 landmarks in more than 70 countries illuminated purple to back the campaign and media reach of 6.2 billion people that's 80 of the world andy it's crazy isn't it and ellie you were one of the stars of the rising phoenix film which was a huge step forward for not just the paralympics but i think for disabled people around the world and the we the 15 campaign feels like another massive step forward as well how do you feel about it it certainly is a huge step forward it's been an incredible movement and i'm so proud that the ipc is leading the push to represent the 1.2 billion people in the world that have a disability over a 10-year campaign i can't wait to see where it goes absolutely yes plenty more progress to come i'm sure it's now time for the bp courage award which goes to someone who showed immense bravery and determination just to be at the tokyo paralympics it's over to duncan blake senior vice president of brand at bp to announce the winner [Music] it was an absolute honour to help judge this year's courage award a bp courage is also one of our values and we define it as facing up to difficulty speaking up and standing by what we believe in [Music] tonight's award aims to recognize an individual team or organization that fulfills at least one of the following criteria finding the inner strength to redefine their own possibilities impacting perceptions of what others may deem as unexpected or having the resilience to truly excel in the face of great challenges it was a privilege to join andrew parsons and jitsavissa on the judging panel to review this year's outstanding nominations from the ipc membership we had a tough job to single out just a single winner but there was one person who we think displayed not just one but all three of the criteria i'm delighted to announce that the winner of this year's bp courage award is victoria potopova by the age of 10 victoria lost her eyesight to cancer but took up judo and went on to compete in three paralympic games winning a bronze medal at each but then in 2017 she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and underwent a series of operations to remove her upper jaw part of her nose and part of her eye socket not only did victoria beat cancer for a second time she also found the courage to compete in tokyo where she won another bronze medal in judea the panel was in awe of the courage this must have taken with life-changing surgery and then coming back to compete in such a physically demanding sport we could only imagine how difficult and courageous this must have been patapova has achieved a submission from lee kailyn special foreign i'm so much thankful for all the people that surrounds me i want to say thank you to my relatives to my daughter to my sisters to all the people who helped me to my coach to the people who works in the russian olympic committee and i want to say thank you to organizers [Music] and the win will be awarded to portapova then i talked to the doctors and they recommended me that i should leave my ordinary life and when i heard that from the doctors i was like why should i quit sport is good for me so i will keep on doing that i don't need to think about my disease i just have to leave and along with that win of course the bronze medal all my medals are kept at home but this model i don't put it far away because my daughter keeps on asking me all the time mama show me your medal you put it on you are the most beautiful mom with your mother on and i'm telling you stop it it's all over now she says no it has to be kept every time and i want you to show that to me every day congratulations to victoria an incredible story of overcoming huge adversity and she is a very deserving winner of our bp courage award we have two big awards still to come best male and best female but let's change the mood slightly with another hit of anastasia pagonus's alternative view of the tokyo paralympics your girls back anastasia hopefully you didn't miss me too much after winning gold in tokyo it honestly took me a hot second to figure out that like wow this is me and this is actually happening i felt like i was on a high and all this was just a dream and it didn't seem real and i was going through all the interviews and they were asking me how does this feel and i was like are you sure you got the right girl are you sure this is me that's a and i knew that my race was right before my best friend's race and she really wanted that gold medal and we were both gonna fight for that medal and i was done with my race and i had one gold and i was going through all of my interviews and she runs out and she said toss i did it and we had the most special hug it was one of the most amazing moments and i was so happy i was able to do it with her and we'll never forget that memory [Music] back to the village we completely skipped out on dinner and we got two ice creams and two coke zeros and one of those chocolate muffins i don't know if any of y'all had the chocolate muffins there but chef's kiss they were amazing and yeah we just had our own little celebration together we had so many amazing celebrations in tokyo like the brazilians dancing and the brazilian swimmers moves yup pop off get into it and rwandan sitting volleyball celebrating their first paralympic win and usa's nick mayhew crushing the field with three goals [Music] [Applause] bye thank you anastasia now andy you did mention that you don't have tick-tock yet but after seeing some of anastasia's tick-tock videos do you think you'll be signing up for an account um not really no to be honest i think anastasia does it very well i'll leave it to her i'm i'm not sure i've got enough to say to be on tiktok well i think you have plenty to say anastasia is very creative but i think you can become quite creative when it comes to your new tick tock handle what do you think what's a handle a handle is something i use to open a door all right well let's move on now we come to the big two awards of the show starting with best male athlete as you'd expect the nominees are all fantastic [Music] marcel hoog has taken the lead from lack of tops and marcel hoog's going to take the win [Music] marcel who takes the victory for a fourth gold medal it's plaque wins in an absolutely dominant display simply remarkable well we are witnessing something very very extraordinary here from yet flat of the netherlands he is about to collect a third gold medal what a performance [Music] oh yes some incredible tennis [Music] it's triple triumph in tokyo for kaneda three times a champion always a legend and the winner of the award for best male athlete is the silver bullet marcel hoog marcel who is the paralympic champion he goes across and takes the victory for a fourth gold medal i just want to say thank you for this award for me it's a great honor to receive this award it was just an incredible year for me with the paralympics in tokyo which were just amazing i just want to say thank you to all who made this possible yeah the association my sponsors my coach family friends and all to who made also the paralympics possible i mean it was a very difficult year with the kobe 19 but it was a big extra effort this year to make all these events possible so thank you for that marcel hoog has taken the lead from lack of tops and marcel hoog's going to take the win and marcel who gives the paralympic champion over 5 000 meters and marcel who is going to make it a double goal at these paralympic games and what a race a new world record from marcel hugh at the moment i have them on my desk because i needed to show to the people it's really nice to see them when i work on my desk it just feels still incredible maybe sometimes it feels not real just like i'm dreaming cannot be possible to win so many medals it's just incredible congratulations to marcel hoog an absolutely dominant force within his sport to win paralympic gold from 800 meters right up to the marathon is a truly amazing feat of endurance and ability and just to cap it all off he completed another quadruple of wins in the world marathon majors with victories in berlin london boston and new york before popping back to japan to break the marathon world record to boot not a bad year at all for marcel hugg the final paralympic sport award for 2021 is for best female athletes and again the nominees are an incredible bunch [Music] don't tear a story she'll take the catch and she'll take the gold medal here at the tokyo paralympics and a punch of the air another gold medal for the superstar of a paralympic sport santa rodriguez keeping the concentration phase on having a quick chat to her guide what a dominant performance for susanna rodriguez she crosses the line to become the gold medalist the paralympic champion [Music] well it's the group and vancouver that find the route to gold and it's double dutch delight here in tokyo [Music] history for d degrees and the winner of the award for the best female athlete is dida degrades [Music] and this time it will paralympic history but did a great the first time ever there's your champion the release of all the pressure all the hard work all the tears that went into it um yeah that's that's a huge amount of of release that you get of joy um it was very special and uh looking back at it um like when i stood on the podium and the medals were brought in uh i saw the metal like on the plate and i was like oh it's mine like that's officially mine i'm just very proud to uh to be paralympic champion double paralympic champion for the next coming three years i finished my match around 12 in the evening i think i was back in the village around two in the morning having to play the next day because that was when the doubles match was planned it was hectic having very little sleep i remember just my double partner she was amazing she played everything right i was able to come into the court and finish the point so yeah that was definitely teamwork and she did most of the work and i was very happy with that after such a short night well it's the grit and van gogh that find the route to gold and it's double dutch delight here in tokyo seeing them back again like i i just uh i look at them and then they're like awesome they're so pretty like they really are pretty i don't know if you've seen one from up close they're heavy as well so like the it's the weight of all the effort that i put in i'm just so proud when i look at them thank you all so much for supporting me in the way that you have last year it's been very special for me to have this this year where everything sort of came together i won the golden slam and also just two gold medals which is very special and then to be awarded with such a such a great prize it makes me feel very appreciated thank you all for for really helping paralympic sports get so much bigger over the last few years and hopefully we can all continue the good work well i'm a huge personal fan and another tour de force by dieter degroot and totally dominating tennis with the calendar year golden slam including the paralympic gold medals that she won in singles and doubles dida became the first wheelchair tennis player to achieve this feat of a golden slam who i should mention was closely followed by dylan olcott and only the third professional tennis player in history to do so but dida had her single-minded superstitions as well to avoid jinxing her chances she avoided celebrating with her dutch teammates when they won medals until she won her own two golds well that wraps up the 2021 paralympic awards but 2022 is another big year in the world of paralympic sport with a record number of para events at the commonwealth games in birmingham and before that we have the winter paralympics in march in beijing [Music] [Music] [Music] i can't wait for that andy i love the winter paralympics because it's certainly a world away from the swimming pool just a bit yeah and you see some amazing things at the winter paralympics as we saw in that video there are things that you see that just take your breath away now ellie before we finish the show i can't go 45 minutes without asking you what your personal highlight of 2021 was i'm gonna guess that it's something to do with becoming the most decorated australian paralympian ever you know that certainly was up there but for me a personal highlight was carrying the flag for australia one last time at the closing ceremony to also look around and see all of the athletes finally united in sport again after covered which is what we're here tonight just to celebrate and are we gonna be seeing you in paris in 2024 not in paris but i will be coming to your side of the world and swimming in birmingham next year oh lovely well we we look forward to welcoming you here to england now i'm very excited for that but unfortunately andy that's all the time that we have for today we hope you've enjoyed the show but we also want to be back in person with you next year and hopefully have a big celebration together absolutely thanks very much to you ellie i've enjoyed being with you and thanks to you for watching goodbye goodbye you