Foreign assignments are usually straightforward affairs. You fly in, drive a new car model/cover a motor show, eat, sleep, fly out, then jet lag. It was a predictable formula, but far from dull because there was always something new to drive or experience.
But when I flew to Paris, France for the 2024 Summer Paralympics care of Toyota, it wasn’t for the usual new car or typical motoring event. I was there for two things: 1) As a media guest of Toyota during its corporate sponsorship of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 2) To cheer on the athletes in Toyota’s Start Your Impossible (SYI) campaign.
The corporate sponsorship is the traditional kind. Toyota’s support was financial and as a mobility partner. The latter involved the use of 2,650 electrified Toyotas and 700 last-mile mobility solutions for the games. Toyota’s Kinto Share car-sharing service was also provided for the use of the Paris staff.
My other purpose for being at the Paris Paralympics was to witness Toyota’s Start Your Impossible campaign unfold. At the start of the year, Toyota selected 11 athletes in our region for its first global corporate initiative. Representatives from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, and the Philippines were selected to be part of 200 Global Team Toyota Athletes (GTTA) worldwide.
From our country, two names were chosen: Ernie Gawilan for Para Swimming, and Carlos Yulo for Artistic Gymnastics. That last name may already be familiar to you—and the rest of the Philippines.
We landed in Paris and the airport had logos of the Olympics all over, welcoming visitors to the global event. It was a sign of how well-organized the games were—at least from our experience. Days prior we were asked to download an app containing tickets to the sports we would attend. For each sport we would get an email, and clicking on the email contents would add a virtual ticket to the app.
For the first day, we attended a Para Swimming competition at the Paris La Defense Arena. It’s an impressive venue, and you immediately see the scale of these games. The competitions were done efficiently. A round of para athletes would line up, race on the swimming pool, then the winners for each round would flash on the big screen.
There was definitely a festive atmosphere. Cheers would reverberate anytime a round of athletes would compete. There was ‘80s and ‘90s pop music playing on the speakers at specific times to keep the crowd energy level up.
Unfortunately our para swimming bet Ernie Gawilan bowed out valiantly before the finals, so we didn’t see him perform. But we would get a chance to meet him that evening.
I learned that para athletes are classified according to their impairment. According to paralympic.org, examples of Impairment Types are impaired muscle power, limb deficiency, short stature, ataxia, visual impairment and intellectual impairment. So para athletes are grouped according to their Impairment Type, and then those in the same group compete against each other.
That night Toyota Motor Asia (TMA) feted the Start Your Impossible athletes to a welcome dinner at Shangri-La Paris; the venue even had a lovely view of the Eiffel Tower. At the Shangri-La, TMA created a ‘Heroes Hall’ for all the SYI athletes; complete with a writeup, a portrait, and a personal item donated by the athlete.
Up on stage seven of TMA’s Global Team Toyota Athletes took the spotlight, including our very own Ernie Gawilan and Carlos Yulo. It was a good haul for the group: two gold medals from Yulo, a gold medal (and an Olympic record) from Pakistani javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem, and a gold medal from Vietnamese para powerlifter Le Van Cong. No wonder TMA president Hao Quoc Tien was beaming all throughout the proceedings.
After a quick group Q&A the Philippine contingent was able to pull Yulo and Gawilan aside for quick interviews, where they shared how they felt about this year’s games. And then that was Day 1.
By Day 2 we were deep into the Olympic spirit. First event we witnessed was para judo. For this sport it was exclusively for athletes with vision impairment, and it follows the same rules as the Olympic equivalent. Since they can’t see their adversary, judokas rely on their sense of touch to ascertain movements; basically they base their moves on breathing patterns and movements, as well as how they grip the judo uniforms. I did some research after watching the matches and how para judo is executed is amazing.
It was the same vibe as yesterday: A pumped crowd cheering for their country, catchy pop music, and professional proceedings—matches were done efficiently on two mats simultaneously.
After a nice lunch (in Paris all meals seem to be charming) and a quick visit to a certain Iron Lady, we headed to Toyota House, a house, well, built by Toyota for the Olympics, for another special ceremony.
At Toyota House there was a room completely covered in portraits of Toyota’s global athletes through the years. We were there to witness Yulo and Nadeem sign their portraits. Our most decorated Olympian beamed as he autographed a photo of him in action. It was a moment of national pride that we happened to witness.
Of course no Toyota House would be complete without Toyotas. At the lower floor was a spacious event space with various Toyota machines on display. On one corner was the Lexus LF-ZC EV sedan concept we saw at last year’s Japan Mobility Show.
There were also mobility devices that could assist those with difficulty moving around; this was part of Toyota’s “No One Left Behind” initiative. What’s interesting is the background prominently shows the IMV 0 vehicle, known to us as the Tamaraw. This just shows how versatile the future Tamaraw will be and how important it is to Toyota’s product matrix.
After Toyota House we went to our last (but definitely not the least) activity. At France’s biggest stadium, the Stade de France, we witnessed the para athletics finals. These games were composed of men’s javelin throw, men’s 1500m, men’s long jump, women’s 200m, men’s 400m, and other athletic challenges.
It was the same festive atmosphere as the two events we witnessed, but this time we saw actual award ceremonies—medals being given to those who clinched their categories. A Toyota global athlete notched one more win for the team when Malaysian Abdul Latif Romly bagged a silver medal in the long jump competition. There was a media contingent from Malaysia, and there was palpable joy from our ASEAN neighbors at this accomplishment. Even if you didn’t know who these athletes were or they weren’t representing your country, it was easy to get swept up in the spirit of the games.
I realized we weren’t just seeing extraordinary people competing at the highest level of sport, we were witnessing dreams come true. On the big screen we could see the attempts and the faces of the para athletes who converged in Paris to fulfill a dream they spent years, decades, maybe a lifetime preparing for.
On the long jump there is a slo-mo capture of the athletes’ feet leaping millimeters from the foul line, making sure every micrometer counts; a precision born out of endless practice.
And then there are the scenes that you never forget.
A para javelin thrower falls to the ground after he gives it his all—almost as if he didn’t save any strength to catch himself after his javelin throw.
In the women’s sprint, visually impaired runners are accompanied by a guide runner for the races, and they run the sprint together. It’s an almost perfect representation of life: Who is running beside you in the human race?
It was a poignant moment, but then the scene became downright emotional. After one race the camera zoomed in on a woman sprinter, her eyes covered by a mask. She was beaming, her face in the direction of the roaring crowd. You know a core memory is being formed. Her guide runner was talking to her ear, and I imagined him saying, “they’re cheering for you. You did it.”
The trip ended on a note I didn’t expect, and I was lucky to be a part of it.
This was a most unusual and special experience, especially as a motoring journalist. I didn’t touch a single steering wheel, never set foot on a race track, nor see a single concept car unfurled. But I saw dreams come true and spirits soar, and Toyota was a big part of it.
Toyota is a master of diverse power sources, be it gasoline, hybrid, electric, or hydrogen. We didn’t realize it was this good at empowering the human spirit as well.
