Abu Dhabi: “This is my fight song,
Take back my life song,
Prove I’m alright song,
My power’s turned on,
Starting right now I’ll be strong,
I’ll play my fight song.
And I don’t really care if nobody else believes,
‘Cause I’ve still got a lot of fight left in me.”
The stirring chorus of American singer-songwriter Rachel Platten’s 2014 ballad ‘Fight Song’ has a special resonance for nine-year-old Abu Dhabi schoolboy, Oliver Faulkner.
For, in the vein of his favourite song, his life has been a tale of forever fighting a disability to prove his worth in the sporting arena.
At the age of two, England-born Oliver was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, a neurological condition which affects movement and co-ordination.
Doctors said he might never walk unaided as he used to fall over after taking only a few steps.
Seven years on, however, and Oliver is a shining example of how an iron will and steely determination can defy debilitating physical impairment.
The plucky nine-year-old is a keen sportsman, with cricket, football, swimming and running among his favourite activities. But he was not satisfied with merely taking part in sport recreationally; he wanted to test himself competitively.
As such, he took up aquathlon, an abbreviated version of the three-event discipline triathlon involving swimming and running, and in March this year created history.
He became the first child with a disability to participate in the Abu Dhabi ITU World Triathlon series in the aquathlon, a 200-metre swim and a 1.5-kilometre run held on the Abu Dhabi Corniche Breakwater.
Accompanied by his mother Sema – who is quick to point out that she was only with him in the water for safety reasons – the British School Al Khubairat schoolboy completed the event along with 75 other children to the cheers of his family, friends and teachers.
“It was really good because I had my mum beside me,” he tells Gulf News. “It was amazing as everyone was cheering for me. I would love to do more events like this.”
“We chatted along the way, didn’t we?” Sema chips in, when asked how Oliver coped with the rigours of the event. “We had a bit of fun, didn’t we? We sang, we chatted.”
What did they sing?
“I said to him: ‘We can’t take my iPhone in the water and play music and sing, so we’ll try and remember a few songs that we’d downloaded’. What was your favourite song? Fight Song?
“Can you remember how it goes, as I can never remember the words, so I made it up as I went along?”
Oliver promptly responds by belting out a lusty rendition of the aforementioned chorus, much to the delight of his proud mum.
“It motivates me,” he says, of the galvanising impact of the lyrics. “It’s emotional. I’ve cried three times to that song.”
With such uplifting sentiments spurring him on, Oliver readily embraces the fact that he can be an inspiration to others like him.
“My message for people with special needs is that it doesn’t matter,” he insists. “We’re all strong, we’re all fighters and every child, even with a disability, can do what any other child would do.”
“That’s a really good message, Oliver,” Sema adds. “Just have a go, eh? Why not? Everyone can have a go.”
Sema’s unstinting support and encouragement have clearly underpinned Oliver’s sporting success story.
In 2014, she set up the ‘Try Rugby’ programme for children with special needs and disabilities at the club where she coaches, Abu Dhabi Harlequins, and got Oliver involved.
In addition, his school began to introduce team activities aimed at pupils of all abilities rather than a gifted few and encouraged him to pursue aquathlon given his passion for running and swimming.
“All children need peer integration, social skills, the whole essence of team building and team sports,” Sema stresses. “This helps children’s social and emotional well-being, so it’s very important to access this, but there wasn’t anything in Abu Dhabi to do this when we first arrived here in 2011.”
But since then, Sema has witnessed an encouraging growth in all-inclusive sports; before his March pinnacle, for instance, Oliver had taken part in a junior aquathlon at Emirates Palace hotel.
She is adamant that children like her gallant son should not be regarded as different to their able-bodied peers.
“As long as you stimulate and challenge children of any ability, they develop and progress. It might be at a different rate to some and might not necessarily be at a competitive level with squads, but it doesn’t matter.
“We’ve had fun and hopefully here there will be more of these events [like the Abu Dhabi ITU World Triathlon] coming up and more sporting entities opening their door a bit and allowing themselves to have trained staff who are prepared to support children out there who need sport like anyone else does.”
It is somewhat of a surprise to learn that Oliver wants to be a businessman or theatrical performer when he grows up.
But for now, his indomitable spirit make him a laudable crusader for young and up-and-coming disabled athletes.
