“If your goal is complicated and what you are trying to achieve is difficult, you are bound to encounter adversity.
“If you have that attitude, the blows and disappointments become easier to survive and you can hopefully enjoy the highs all the more.”
Colin Judge had to deal with adversity from day one of his life after being born with only one limb, his left arm.
The Dublin table tennis player will carry the Ireland tricolour with that one arm at the Paralympics opening ceremony on Wednesday after being chosen for the country’s flagbearing role along with sprint athlete Orla Comerford.
At Place de La Concorde, the 29-year-old will look to pick out proud parents Michelle and Brian and brother Niall in the crowd, along with his aunt Anna and other family members and friends determined to squeeze every drop out of the Paris Games experience after none of them could join him in Tokyo three years ago amid the Covid-19 restrictions.
Colin’s beloved grandmother Patricia Butler, who turned 91 recently, won’t be in Paris but will proudly watch every moment on television in county Donegal alongside another of his aunts Assumpta.
“My family supported me from the day I was born. I can’t even imagine how difficult it was back then,” Judge told BBC Sport Northern Ireland.”
“They did an incredible job of setting me up in life and I’ve so much to be grateful to my mum and dad.”