There are small objects that silently control the movement of other objects around them. The sun, for example.
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Or, a fist-sized white ball in the center of a boccia court, which players call a jack. The white ball doesn't move after being thrown, just waiting. Twelve other balls, six red and six blue, scramble toward it like planets that haven't yet figured out their own orbits.
Gischa Zayana has been living in that small solar system for four years.
That afternoon he left the Merdeka Palace area after receiving the medal-winning athlete award from Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.
Wearing a light blue jacket and a hat that shaded half his face, he beamed as he slowly moved along in his wheelchair. Around his neck hung two gold medals from the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Para Games, which clinked softly as the wheels clattered over the gravel on the asphalt of the Presidential Palace complex. The sound was barely audible, except to those paying close attention.
He smiled serenely when greeted. It was still the same smile, even though his facial features had grown more mature.
Three years ago in Phnom Penh, there were round-rimmed glasses on that face. Behind them, a pair of eyes closed every time the red ball missed. Now the glasses were gone, and the lines of her cheeks were more defined. The seventeen-year-old girl had transformed into a twenty-one-year-old woman who knew how to sit quietly in a crowd.
June 2023, ASEAN Para Games Cambodia, women's BC2 individual final. Gischa narrowly defeated Vietnam's Nguyen Nhat Uyen 6-5.
The scoreboard recorded it as a one-point difference. However, the same scoreboard never recorded Gischa's tears.
That day, she cried like a child who had just been told her dream could come true. Gischa's first international gold medal was like a miracle, as she couldn't do anything when her opponent had five chances to win easily.
A year later, Gischa was in Paris. The biggest stage a disabled athlete could imagine. She returned home with a bronze medal in the individual event, plus a silver in the team event. She was also the first Indonesian athlete to win a boccia medal at the Paralympics. Some called it a surprise. Gischa called it a lifeline.
Then Thailand, January 2026. ASEAN again. Two more gold medals, in the individual and mixed team events.
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