Sports brought hope -- and love -- to these Paralympians living with childhood polio.

Kayode Alabi and Christiana Alabi both competed at table tennis events at the Paris Paralympics; both are Nigerian natives who each suffered polio in childhood. For a photo by NPR click here (this one).
Kayode and Christiana Alabi share many similarities. Both were affected by polio as children growing up in Nigeria; both began playing table tennis after that; they met each other during national table tennis trials in 2017, fell in love, married later that same year, competed at their first Paralympics together, were featured as stars of an inspiring BBC video released to kick-start this event; Kayode refers to Christiana as his woman during one match while Christiana offers their competitive spirit with laughter: she says she “can beat him any day or anytime!” While Kayode uses cane while Christiana prefers wheelchair.
Kayode acknowledges her life is challenging as an individual with physical challenges residing in this country; often doing everything on her own.
Christiana Alabi of Team Nigeria takes aim during a gold medal match during the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Later that summer she represented Nigeria at the Paralympics in Paris.
Justin Setterfield/Getty Images Europe. To toggle, turn off or display caption.
Justin Setterfield/Getty Images Europe
“My family doesn’t see me as someone who will become significant in life,” Christiana stated in her official bio. Regardless, from early on she showed an affinity towards sports – playing it even on street corners when she was small! She loved tennis too – something her official bio also confirmed. “My village did not have a table tennis table; when I was 7, we used little wooden benches on the street as playing spaces and used bathroom slippers as racquets – playing golf balls using bathroom slippers as bats! When my partner and I discovered table tennis as a career option in Paris we both wanted medals.” Kayode believed their medal dream could come true due to polio’s persistent effects in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as recently reappearing in Gaza due to vaccines; however their dream didn’t materialise due to this disease’s longstanding reach and lasting legacy in their nation’s borders. However this dream ultimately failed due to this infection’s return.
Unfortunately for her, however, the young mother could only offer me false hope about finding love again. But thank God I found an awesome companion.
Paralympians past and present who overcame childhood polio infections often use their platform as survivors to bring awareness about vaccination and share insights into life after polio infection. Gavial disease has been virtually eliminated worldwide thanks to vaccination programs; however, pockets remain in Afghanistan and Pakistan where transmission continues, and has recently reappeared again in Gaza. Dr. Tunji Funsho is among those being affected by past polio infections – some teenagers and adults both. In 2020 he was honored as one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People due to his efforts towards eliminating polio across Africa. “For instance, many children don’t have access to schools even though they want them and it becomes an extreme strain on families caring for children.” Anne Wafula Strike was fearfully shunned from Kenya as a child after contracting polio at just four years of age, when neighbors believed she was cursed and tried to burn down his homestead due to fear that what they believed she had would spread further to other children. Strike tells NPR, ‘They tried burning down my dad’s mud hut for fear it might pass to more children.” She continues, telling NPR she and her family fled due to social stigma because people believed what she had would spread further and that other children might catch it themselves.”
There’s more than meets the eye here – imagine being the person responsible for selling all this junk to begin with! But enough about me; on to something important.
Dedeline Mibamba Kimbatahas of Democratic Republic of Congo is being mentored by former Paralympians and wheelchair racer Anne Wafula Strike from Kenya who contracted polio as a child.
Nick Ansell of PA Images/Getty Images was photographed. To display caption information. To toggle caption display options.
Nick Ansell of Getty Images provides images for this story.
“Polio is a life-threatening virus disease caused by bacteria or parasites which attack the nervous system and is typically transmitted between individuals when stool (poop) or droplets from a cough, sneeze, or other cough occurs near an infected individual and enter their mouths; an individual with Polio can remain contagious up to six weeks post infection.”) After moving to the capital city of South Sudan, Strike was finally given medical care and rehabilitation assistance; yet she continued facing stigma: when trying to play with other little girls at playgrounds where parents would call them back because she had Polio: she could no longer do her usual things.”
Things drastically improved for Strike when she began attending a boarding school for children with disabilities. “From the minute I entered its gates, I felt completely at ease – not because we all shared similar disabilities but simply because no one stared at one another!” she recounts. Strike was first exposed to wheelchair racing while living in England after moving there and giving birth, watching Commonwealth Games para sports competition on her television screen at home. Wheelchair racing caught her attention. “When I witnessed these remarkable, strong women pushing so hard in racing chairs, one face in particular caught my attention: Louise Savage from Australia. “Louise had such determination and fierceness that I knew this is something I should pursue. For me [wheelchair racing was like Formula 1 for para sports! It was truly unbelievable!” She continues: Strike became the first Kenyan wheelchair racer ever to compete at the Paralympic Games at Athens 2004 and later served as mentor/coach helping athletes from multiple nations at Paris 2016 Paralympic Games. Now in Paris as mentor/coach helping athletes from multiple nations; specifically those living in low income nations around the globe: “My mentoring services extend not just within Britain but internationally as well. “Soon enough, we will establish an academy where athletes from low-income countries will have opportunities to compete at an extremely high level in their sport.” She notes how sport was instrumental in changing her own life: in Africa she never experienced being part of any active sporting community and therefore didn’t play sports herself as she didn’t have access to that option as an autistic young woman. Now there is such an academy being set up, giving people from low-income nations such opportunities. Reflecting upon herself she adds “Sport was also an unexpected blessing – when she couldn’t play sports as she had access or participation wasn’t offered”.