Despite his physical impairment, Maltese Paralympian Thomas Borg finds that his mental preparation is still the biggest challenge heading into the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

“It’s one of the most, if not the most, important aspects of the sport because if I know that I’m fully mentally prepared and not fully physically prepared, rather than the other way round, I will end up obtaining a better result,” Borg told Lovin Malta on an episode of Lovin Daily.

The para-athlete will be competing in the T47 100-metre and 400-metre events at Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. The T47 classification consists of athletes with a below elbow or wrist amputation.

The 19-year-old para-athlete was born without a right arm below the elbow. Despite his disability, Borg has been involved in sports throughout his whole life, but it is only his second time racing competitively in track and field.

“Before I started my athletic journey, I started swimming and I competed very competitively in the para-swimming scene,” he continued. 

“I don’t feel at a disadvantage to others because I’ve always done my mental warmups and have prepared mentally to visualise my own race”.

Despite his confidence, Maltese para-athletes are nonetheless handicapped heading into Tokyo 2020 with less international exposure and competition time than most other athletes competing – a consequence of inadequate funding towards sports in Malta. 

“Most of them are full-time athletes, their life is based on their training schedules only,” Borg continued. “They live in dorms with their whole teams, spend training camps around Europe etc.

“The para-athlete community is definitely growing. The MPC is doing an amazing job in helping us build the foundations that Malta needs to bring us back up to par,” he said.

Malta has actually won seven medals at the Paralympic Games – four in Rome 1960, one in Tokyo 1964 and another in Arnhem 1980.

However, this was followed y a 24-year hiatus with no Maltese representative at six consecutive Paralympic Games from Seoul 1988 to Athens 2004.

While winning a medal is somewhat of a stretch at these Paralympic Games, Borg feels ready and prepared to break a few personal and potentially national records in Tokyo.

“I feel very prepared, I’ve been working really hard to get to the best possible place I can for these games.

“Hopefully, I have some good runs and a good performance,” he said.

Borg will also be joined by Maltese para-swimmer Vladyslava Kravchenko who will represent Malta in para-swimming at the Tokyo 2020 Games.

Kravchenko is also the first female Maltese para-athlete to be selected for two consecutive Paralympic Games, having already competed in Rio 2016, where she was also Malta’s first-ever female swimmer at the prestigious event.

Share this post to help spread the world