KOBE - More than two decades after surviving a train derailment that left her paralyzed from the neck down, Japanese Paralympic archer Aiko Okazaki has embarked on perhaps her biggest challenge yet: motherhood.
The 40-year-old, who represented Japan at the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics after surviving the 2005 Amagasaki train disaster that killed 107 people, gave birth to her first child in March.
Raising a baby has brought fresh challenges for Okazaki, who has spent the past 21 years finding ways to pursue her ambitions despite the injuries she suffered in the crash.
"There are so many times, especially when I'm looking after my child, when I wish I could use my hands or walk," she said. But seeing her baby's face gives her fresh determination.
"I know I have to do everything I can to raise this child."
Okazaki was a second-year student at Doshisha University on April 25, 2005, when the commuter train she was riding derailed as she traveled to campus.
She was in the front carriage when she suddenly felt the train lift off the tracks and found herself being pulled toward a window.
Before she could grasp what was happening, she was thrown from the train.
Surrounded by wreckage in the dim light, with the smell of gasoline in the air, she could do little but pray for someone to rescue her.
"Images of what happened are still burned into my memory in fragments. I don't think they'll ever disappear," she said.
Her injuries left her paralyzed from the neck down, and she spent 377 days in hospital.
Accepting that she could no longer do many of the things she had once taken for granted was a long and difficult process.
But with encouragement from family and friends, she gradually began rebuilding her life.
"Staying shut away at home wasn't going to get me anywhere. I had to become independent," she recalled.
She returned to university, found a job and eventually moved to Tokyo, where she experienced living alone.
When Tokyo was chosen to host the Paralympics in 2013, Okazaki decided she wanted to challenge herself again.
At the suggestion of her mother, who had some experience in archery, Okazaki took up the sport, gradually developing a technique suited to her physical abilities through trial and error.
She had to work out how to hold and draw a bow and how to secure her body so that the weight of the equipment would not cause her to topple over.
Her determination eventually earned her a place on Japan's Paralympic team.
Unable to regulate her body temperature because of her paralysis, she took extensive precautions ahead of the Games, even visiting the competition venue a year in advance to assess temperatures and wind conditions.
She went on to finish fifth.
After the Games, Okazaki stepped away from competitive archery before entering a new chapter of her life with the birth of her child.
"I was so relieved that my baby was finally here," she said.
But that relief was accompanied by anxiety about leaving hospital and whether she would be able to manage motherhood.
Now raising her child in Tokyo, she takes pleasure in watching the baby grow, kick excitedly when called by name and smile at familiar faces.
Looking back over the years since the accident, Okazaki said she has constantly sought ways to overcome obstacles and achieve what matters to her.
Although she has no firm plans to return to competition, she hopes to resume training when circumstances allow.
"One day, I want my child to see me doing archery."
