Paraplegic Hong Kong climber Lai Chi-wai says the car accident that left him without the use of his legs ended up making him a better person. “Before the accident, I was pretty self-centred,” said the 38-year-old. “As a professional sportsman, I mainly focused on how to excel in all championships.” Before the accident, which happened in 2011 when he was 28, Lai was at one point in his rock climbing career ranked eighth in the world. He was the four-time winner of the Asian Rock Climbing Championship, and the world’s first Chinese winner at the X Games. Lai said he had a one-track mind and was so focused on his career he rarely thought about others. “After the accident, I started to broaden my view,” he said. “I would start to think about what other people think, how to collaborate with others as I need other people’s help. Gradually, more people came to support me in what I hoped to accomplish.” Lai resumed his job as a climbing instructor and set about devising a way to continue climbing without the use of his legs. He found a way to link his wheelchair to a roping system so he can pull himself up. Five years after his accident, Lai took on his first big challenge: scaling the 495-metre Lion Rock in Kowloon, a summit he often did before his accident. The successful attempt caught people’s attention. Lai said it was a massive turning point for him. “I was truly content and relieved. I gained back my feeling and memories of my bygone life being a professional climber before my accident.” While on top of Lion Rock, Lai said he sat there by himself for more than half an hour, reflecting on everything that had happened. “I flashed back to my life [before the accident], and finally realised that I don’t need to care about my past glory, how other people look at me. Though I cannot climb the same way as in the past, I can climb again in an adaptive way. I finally overcame my crux and was ready to let go of my past and move on.” In April of this year, Hong Kong’s High Court awarded Lai HK$16 million (US$2.06 million) in damages from the two drivers involved. Lai was riding his motorbike on the Tuen Mun Highway. Paraplegic athlete starts new career as motivational speaker after Lion Rock climb Lai still has the competitive gene in him, and is now set to take on his next challenge – summiting Nina Tower in Hong Kong, a 320-metre skyscraper in Tsuen Wan, the sixth tallest building in Hong Kong and the same height as the Eiffel Tower. The attempt on January 9 will be a fundraiser for spinal cord patients to utilise exoskeletons, and it comes with a whole set of new obstacles. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chiwai Lai (@chiwaicia) The building is owned by the Chinachem Group, who are also a lead partner in the event and will match donations, looking to raise HK$3 million in total. “I have never climbed a skyscraper and there is no chance for me to practice climbing one before the actual challenge takes place. I can only practice the move at a sport climbing wall. But due to Covid restrictions, all climbing walls are closed.” Lai said he has been relying on visualisation techniques, a pulley move he will perform more than 2,000 times, moving up 15 centimetres at a time. He said he is more than ready now to take on the tower. “I have the ability to visualise every single detail of my move vividly in my mind, even including a droplet of sweat dripping down from my forehead to my chin.”