In a claustrophobic dimly-lit room in a Nairobi stadium, the diminutive Kenyan Paralympian Hellen Wawira Kariuki barely breaks a sweat as she powerlifts nearly double her weight, her coach urging her on. “Sixty kilos is still warming up,” grinned the 32-year-old, who qualified for the Paris Games that open next week in the para-powerlifting under 41-kilo category. “The sport has helped me to have courage which I did not have before,” Wawira told AFP. The Kenyan athlete, who has spina bifida, a congenital malformation of the spine, finished fifth at the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021. And this time around, she said: “I hope to win any medal because anything can happen.” That sentiment sums up her approach to the sport, which she took up by chance. In 2012 she was stuck at home in Embu, some 125 kilometres (77 miles) northeast of Nairobi, after she was unable to afford university. For three years she helped out around the house until a friend suggested she try powerlifting — much to her parents’ horror, who were worried about the strain on her body. Despite training on a rudimentary homemade bench, she achieved a respectable placing in Tokyo, when she lifted 95 kilos.