Jin Jing
Jin Jing – Wheelchair-bound Olympic torchbearer Jin Jing, seen in pictures and video below, became a Chinese hero for defending the Olympic torch in Paris from Free Tibet protestors who sought to extinguish the torch.
27-year old Paralympic fencer Jin Jing received a hero’s welcome upon her return to Beijing on Wednesday for her valiant efforts to protect the torch amid the chaotic protests in Paris.
Jin has been dubbed “Smiling Angel in Wheelchair” and the “Most Beautiful Torchbearer” by Chinese media after news footage seen in the video below showed her courage as she struggled to hold onto the torch as protestors overwhelmed police.
Several protestors who got past police threw themselves at Jin and her two companions, including one who is a blind athlete. In the photos, Jin Jing appears a little scared in her wheelchair, but looks focused on protecting the torch from the pro-Tibetan separatists.
“My first instinctive react was to protect the torch,” Jin told Xinhua News Agency, adding that her chin and shoulders were scratched and her right leg bruised, but she refused to give the torch away.
“I felt no pain from the scratches and injury on my right leg,” she said. “I only wanted to protect the torch.”
“I don’t think I did any great things,” Jin Jing added. “Any Chinese and Olympics-loving torchbearers would protect the torch under such circumstances.”
Jin Jing lost her lower right leg to cancer at age 9, but later became a Paralympics fencer who won silver and bronze medals at the 2002 Far East and South Pacific Games. She lives with her parents in Shanghai.
And that’s the latest news on China’s Olympic torch hero Jin Jing.