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Blind Children Enjoying, Getting Involved in Olympics (February 10)
On February 9, the M Wave rink in Nagano City was the scene of speed skating action, and the crowd cheered as Olympic records fell. In that crowd were 22 students, from elementary to high school age, from the Nagano School for the Blind. The students cheered and made noise with "bells" they had made by putting erasers in bottles as they enjoyed the fastest skating at the Olympic Winter Games.Teachers accompanying the students told them where the skaters competing in each race were from, and the kids yelled out the names of the countries as soon as they heard the starter's pistol. Nobuhiko Takamizawa, a second grader, wondered which racer to cheer for while he and his teacher, Tomiko Sato, tried to guess the winner of each race: "What sort of country is Norway? If it's cold, the Norwegian skater must be good--I'll cheer for him!"
Before the competition started, the theme song of the Olympic mascot Snowlets came on the loudspeakers. The students, who had learned the song in school, moved and danced in time to the music, really getting into the Olympic spirit. Ms. Sato was very happy that her students had experienced the skating: "The children can't watch the skaters with their eyes, but I think they were able to follow the racers with their ears."
Aya Masuda, a sixth grader, was just as excited as the spectators who could see the race: "As the skaters get closer, I can hear the swoosh of their skates. They're really going fast!" Aya, along with third grader Rumi Usuda, had participated in the Opening Ceremony on February 7 as a dancer. Out of 150 dancing children in the Ceremony, who escorted the Olympic teams into the arena after their performance, 10 were disabled children from Nagano. Aya and Rumi held hands with Chris Moon, a British anti-mine activist, as he carried the Olympic torch into the stadium as one of the final relay runners. (Shinano Mainichi Shimbun)
The students listened to the races and cheered as loud as anyone. (Shinano Mainichi Shimbun)