Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
There’s no such thing as disabled to Mahlangu
With legs, teen amputee can feel normal and fit in again
FOR as long as he can remember, Ntando Mahlangu’s greatest desire was to run. It’s something that most people take for granted but until he received his first pair of prosthetic legs at the age of 10, running was just a pipe dream for Mahlangu.
Four years later, the Grade 7 pupil has become the toast of the disabled athletics world after breaking two senior African records and one senior world record at the National Championships for the Physically Disabled and Visually Impaired in Bloemfontein in March.
Mahlangu was born with hemimelia, a congenital condition which left him unable to use his legs and wheelchair bound for most of his life. That all changed in 2012 when the Jumping Kids Prosthetic Fund intervened, arranging for Mahlangu’s legs to be amputated below the knees and providing him with the blade prosthetics which allowed him to walk for the first time.
“It really changed my life and it felt good when I received my prosthetics,” he said.
“It was amazing for me to walk and to learn how to do fun things like play soccer, which I couldn’t do before. I was able to be a normal kid. I was in a wheelchair before that. I was in a wheelchair for most of my life.”
The blades have allowed Mahlangu to do many things that able-bodied children consider ordinary but since receiving the prosthetics, his achievements have been anything but “normal”.
On his first visit to Jumping Kids in 2012, he was asked what he would do when he finally received prosthetic legs. His answer was simply, “I want to run”, and he wasted no time in doing so after receiving the blades in September of that year.
“It actually took me about a week to get used to them. After two weeks I was used to it and I could already run,” Mahlangu said.
“I started athletics soon after that, in the beginning of 2013 at Is Ability Sports Club. I do athletics at school as well. I don’t train at school, just at Is Ability, but I compete for my school.”
Jumping Kids was founded in 2009, but the organisation soon encountered difficulty in getting its young beneficiaries involved in sport. This led to the Foundation of the IsAbility Sports Club, which has helped Mahlangu fulfill his athletic potential.
He competed at the National Championships for the Physically Disabled for the first time last year and went on to break several records in the T42 class. The records did not stand as he was just 13 years old at the time, but the red tape did not stand in his way at this year’s event.
Mahlangu set African records in the T42 200m and 100m with respective times of 26.20 seconds and 13.34, and a new world record in the T42 400m with a time of 53.19.
The talented Moreleta Park resident went on to better his 400m time at the Athletics SA Sub-Youth, Youth, Junior and Under- 23 Championships in Germiston recently, finishing in 50.08 and claiming bronze against able-bodied Under-16 runners.
The time will not stand as a world record because it was recorded in an able- bodied event and with no International Paralympic Committee official present.
“I don’t really care that it isn’t a record. I’m still happy about the record that I set at the Championships for the Physically Disabled,” Mahlangu said.
“It was a privilege for me to run against able-bodies. To me, there is no difference between disabled and able-bodied people. There is no such thing as disabled to me, so it felt the same as running against other athletes at the Championships for the Physically Disabled. I want to continue running against able-bodied athletes.”
Mahlangu’s record times in the 100m and 200m mean that he has already qualified for the Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games. However, Johan Snyders, founder of Jumping Kids, says blades allow children to do more than just achieve in the sporting arena.
“I’m in the mobility business, meaning we try as far as possible to get these kids mobile. What we are trying to do is have these kids blend in,” Snyders said.
“Childhood development only happens while they are children. If we put them on blades they will be able to run and jump and play and develop as normal kids will do.
“Their fine and gross motor skills can develop via playing football, running around and doing things kids do.
“When they wear normal conventional prosthetics they can’t walk down stairs leg over leg, they can’t walk down a ramp and walking in sand is impossible. Most of these kids are from rural areas and walking from their house to the local spaza shop is impossible on conventional prosthetics.
“Blades allow them to walk at a similar speed to kids their own age. They will be able to go to the shop and have social interactions irrespective of their disability.”
Mahlangu is just one of around 100 children who are currently supported by the organisation at an average cost of R50 000 each per year, and with a car rental company as the only major sponsor.
Though many have achieved on the athletics track, with five of the young Is Ability members claiming a total of nine medals at the 2015 International Wheelchair and Amputee Sport World Junior Games, Snyders says the blades also allow them progress in other areas of their lives.
“Without his legs, Ntando is under 1.2 metres tall and not even the required height for a ride at a theme park. With legs, he is normal and he fits in,” Snyders said.
“Before Ntando had the blades, he was walking around his school on his hands and knees. Socially, that is a very difficult place to be because nobody looks down. As soon as we fitted Ntando with the blades, he immediately became taller, he could immediately sit on a chair at school, he could interact with his peers.”
Now that Mahlangu is finally able to run, and run faster than most other 14-yearolds, disabled or able-bodied, he hopes to get the chance to do so in Brazil later this year. Ultimately, though, gold medals and glory are not his primary goals.
“My goal is to be a role model for kids. My role model is Usain Bolt and I want to be a role model to someone else one day,” he said. “That’s my goal for athletics; to make people happy.”