Girl without legs, walks on her hands... now Paralympic medal hope

Qian Hongyan, a teenager from China, is the best example of how determination can overcome all odds in life.

Her legs had to be amputated at age 4 following an accident. Thereafter, she learnt to walk on her hands, using a basketball cut in half to steady her. Shortly, she was nicknamed 'the basketball girl" by the locals, reports Asiaone. 

Also the fact that she was born into an impoverished family meant that she couldn't receive proper education. But nothing affected her.

She joined a local swimming club for the disabled. Initially she couldn't adapt. But she put in rigorous work and learnt to swim. She became a successful athlete training for four hours a day.

Now, she hopes to win medals for her country at the Paralympic Games.

But it was only early last month that Hongyan got her own pair of legs. Now, 18 and 1.64m-tall, she has a new pair of prosthetic legs that are longer and more suitable than her previous ones.

Doctors at the China Rehabilitation Research Center in Beijing helped her adapt to her new legs.

Today, her photographs are going viral on social media sites.

It was only eight years back that the world came to know about her, when her story appeared for the  first time in 2005.

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