npr:

“En garde!” the coach shouts. Two opposing fencers, uniformed and masked, raise their sabers before their own faces.

Both Greek fencers, Panos Triantafyllou and Vasilis Ntounis, are in wheelchairs.

“Prêt, allez!” the coach shouts again, and the match begins. The sound of swift-striking sabers echoes inside the small indoor court in Athens’ Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium, where Greece’s national team consisting exclusively of people with disabilities is training.

Triantafyllou, 33, won silver at Rio’s 2016 Paralympic Games and is getting ready for the Tokyo Paralympic Games in August. He’s been picking up medals in the meantime: gold last November at the Wheelchair Fencing World Cup in Amsterdam and silver this month at the cup in Eger, Hungary.

Greek Paralympic Fencer Hopes To Show What’s Possible In A Wheelchair

Image Credits: Demetrios Ioannou for NPR