Alvina Neo
Alvina Neo loves speed. Whether it’s hand cycling with the wind in her hair, or firing a pellet from the barrel of an air pistol. Nothing stops this go-getter in her relentless pursuit of life.
Q: Where does your undeterred spirit come from?
A: I think I have my parents to thank for that, ‘cause they’ve never actually treated me like a disabled child. Sure I have problems but they’re like you fall down you get up yourself. You fail, you buck up and you study hard, if you hit your brother, you’re going to get whacked. You know there’s there’s no such thing as I’m going to coat you with bubble wrap and protect you from the society. You get out there, get scolded is your problem, deal with it yourself so it kind of changed that mental ability to handle situations also, yeah.
Q: What are some of the values that you’ve picked up from air pistol?
A: I think the values I picked up from air pistol is that is is an equal sport as well, for both the disabled and the able bodied. Sure, we are sitting down on a stool or some others are sitting on the wheelchair but the principle of the sport is still the same. You and me we can still compete but you you can’t say that because I’m sitting on a chair, I am more stable than you because technically I’m not stable at all. But um for us to be doing this side by side, is a very inclusive sport even handcycling as well. So I think that value kind of tells me that you know there’s a lot more things that we can do together, and not exclude the disabled just because you’re different. Always try to get people to enjoy the sport together. Yeah I think that’s the main thing that I take away from the all the sports that I do.
Q: What inspires you to keep going?
A: I think it’s partly to create that awareness that anybody and everybody can do something. Might not be sports related, it might be something else. But you have to put in that effort to achieve something. I do the Swissotel Vertical Marathon, for example. Initially, when I tried out was just to challenge myself, you know see whether I can make it to the top la. But when I when I made it I realized that you know I’m going to do this every year. And then I’m going to ask more and more people with disabilities to join me. Because we are not there for prizes, definitely. We are not going to get the prize.
Watch the full story of this indomitable fighter here:
