Table tennis the only option for me, says gold medal winner Sandra Mikolaschek

Wheelchair player Sandra Mikolaschek said she "doesn't know any other life than what you see right now", but she has changed her life with table tennis. The world No. 2 outpaced her Serbian opponent and world No. 1 Borislava Peric-Rankovic in four sets 3-1 in the women's singles wheelchair final in the category WS4 to win her first medal at Paralympic Games following two fifth places in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. Her screams filled the air in the Arena Sud 4 in Paris with her mother Ines and father Uwe enthusiastically hugging each other on the stands after the decisive last ball. "I can't believe it. It is like a dream for me, and I am happy about the way things worked out after long training years," the German said. Words of praise for her sport seem to bubble out of her. "I love table tennis as it is such a fast and dynamic sport," the 27-year-old added. Mikolaschek was just a month old when a heart operation "went somehow wrong" as she put it, with her forced into a wheelchair. "I am used to it more or less right from the start of my life." Being an optimistic and lionhearted character, she decided to make the best out of her destiny. She revealed that her sportive roots started to grow at the age of ten when she entered a local sports hall, and she chose table tennis when her parents encouraged her to take up a hobby. "In the town I came from, there was only football and table tennis. As football doesn't work for me, I started to play what has become my life since then," the athlete said. At 17 years old, she moved from her East German hometown of Eisleben to Dusseldorf to join the club of German icon Timo Boll, "as it was known as the table tennis hotspot." After finishing high school at the club's academy, she took up studying psychology at a nearby university. Everything is being built around table tennis. She said she feels comfortable with the structure of her life. Sport is giving her the freedom to "investigate new tactics or shots and improve, while I have in mind to join some police force wh en I have finished my studies." Enditem Source: The Namibia Press Agency