TYRONE PILLAY: "You have to start somewhere, so start with a belief in yourself."

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Tyrone Pillay is a 13-year #toyota employee at #toyota South Africa Motors. He is also an avid cricket fan, children's mentor, Para athlete, and Bronze medal Paralympian from the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Paralympic Games in Shot-Put. The following is based on a conversation we had with him in September 2018.

Sitting in front of us in Tokyo, the tall, well-built and muscular #tyronepillay is a force―he seems invulnerable and ready to conquer the world. Shot-Put Bronze Medalist of the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Paralympic Games, Tyrone had dreamed of being a South African athlete since he was three years old. This is a brief story of how he got there.

"When I was born," starts Tyrone, "the doctor immediately took me away. That's how my mother realized there was something wrong with her newborn baby. Later that day, she learnt that her baby boy was born with something wrong in his left leg."

As we chat, he recalls his childhood, and how his family grew stronger together over time.

His family treated him as a kid with no impairment, meaning he didn't get any special attention, and he lived his life as most able-bodied kids do. When he was a child, his brother would tackle and take him down when they played soccer, just as if he was playing with other kids. "I started using prosthetic legs when I was 10 months old, and, my family always treated me like a normal child, even my older brother would play rough with me," he recalls.

One day when he was six, his prosthetic leg broke. He looked at his dad hoping he would help him up and fix it. "Can you help me up?" Unexpectedly, his father's answer was "No." To this day, he still remembers his father's next words, which were: "One day I'm not going to be at your side, you need to pick yourself up." So Tyrone picked himself up, and, with one leg, hopped around all the way home and later fixed the prosthetic leg on his own.

This may sound like a tough way of raising children, but being taught and treated the same as other boys by his father also brought his family together. Tyrone was brought up to be independent and not feeling any different from his surroundings. The first "inclusive society" for him was his family itself.

Of course, he also recalls the challenging days when he questioned why he was born this way. Growing up with impairment was hard. Often bullied and mocked as a young boy, he remembered feeling embarrassed of his prosthetic leg.

Through this challenging period, his grandmother kept telling him that people would grow and "they will see who you really are." Tyrone took his grandmother's advice to heart, but it took him a long time to find who he was―until around 2009, when Tyrone started to view his prosthetic leg as gift. Today, he believes that embracing his impairment has given him a second chance at life. Everything he regretted in the past is what he feels the most grateful about now.

"Looking back now, my family had developed, and I had developed, and my condition made my family stronger the way it had made me stronger," Tyrone smiles gratefully.

As he talks about them, it is clear that his family members, especially his parents, are his role models and the reason Tyrone is the man he is now.

Well-known for his huge powerful figure, it is hard to imagine that he was not this big when he was young. In his youth, he played cricket for over 14 years, in a league of able-bodied athletes. "I was actually really good, and I remember it made me a little bit arrogant that time," he readily admits. Moreover, his father was the manager of the team he was in. At that time he felt overly confident that he would always take an important part in every game. However, one day, his father told him to sit out the team selection, and that he wasn't going to be the main player. Tyrone was furious. "Why?" he recalled asking his father, "I am the best player and I am being told to sit out!?"

His father's answer was a surprise. He told Tyrone, "Until you learn that you are part of the team, you'll never play again!" He then made Tyrone sit on the bench for five games, only to put Tyrone as water boy for the next six games. At that point, Tyrone started to learn what his father wanted him to learn, which was to understand the role of each player, and the dynamic of teamwork. Even after he learned this first important lesson, his father didn't stop there; he made him sit on the bench for the following ten games. But somehow, Tyrone's attitude turned positive. It made him value every single moment in his life and to not to take things for granted.

Tyrone stopped playing cricket when he realized it would be hard to make the South African Cricket team due to his impairment. But this didn't stop his passion for sports. He watched the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games and it rang a bell, inspiring him to take another path to his dream.

Jokingly, Tyrone tells us how he chose Shot-Put as his #sport: "I was too fat to run fast enough for a medal, so I'd rather use my strength for something else. Probably throwing things," he said as he put on a cheeky smile. He had always been interested in the world's strongest figures, and though running looked like fun, doing something with strength would be more his cup of tea. At first, he tried doing the javelin and discus throw. But it wasn't until he tried Shot-Put that he saw where his talents would be best used.

Once set on Shot-Put, he had to change his know-how from his previous sports and learn a new one. He aimed for the London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016 Paralympic Games. Although he didn't make it to the team for London 2012 Games, he was finally able to reach his dream to become a Paralympian in Rio de Janeiro 2016 Paralympic Games. In his first Paralympic Game, #tyronepillay brought home a Bronze medal for his country and this exceeded his expectations, as it became only the seventh ever Paralympic medal earned for South Africa.