Josephine Medina is thankful for opportunities that are bringing her closer to her dreams again.
Medina said this after she earned an outright “alternate” invitation from the International Table Tennis Federation for next year’s Tokyo Paralympic Games.
The 50-year-old Medina said not many Asians are given a chance to compete in the Games.
“Most of my competitors are Europeans. And many of them are in the list. Sana mabigyan din ng chance yung mga underprivileged countries,” said Medina in an online interview.
Afflicted with poliomyelitis which affected the length of her legs, Medina last saw action at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, and almost achieved a podium finish.
In the 2016 Summer Paralympics, she won a bronze medal after defeating Juliane Wolf of Germany.
Medina’s invitation was made possible by the ITTF thru a bipartite agreement that was given by all international federations to member countries.
Currently, the ITTF is still in the pre-selection process to determine the qualifiers for the Paralympics.
Chef de Mission Francis Diaz recently got confirmation on Medina’s status.
For Medina to finally get accepted to the Games, the international federation will now coordinate with the Tokyo Paralympic Games Accreditation committee to facilitate this process.
She will be able to avail of an extra seat if a participant begs off or an additional berth is added.