Kwadzo Klokpah, from canoe to javelin: the Paralympic champion who breaks every record

Dervio (Lecco), 28 May 2025 – From the canoe paddle to the javelin . The discipline changes, the result is always the same: victory . The Paralympic canoe champion from Dervio Kwadzo Klokpah , at the dawn of his 36th birthday, has set a new Italian record for the javelin throw.

Last Sunday in Brescia, during the Italian Corporate Championship , wearing the colours of the Freemoving club of Monza, he threw the javelin to a distance of 27.75 metres , setting a new Italian record for the specialty.

The new sporting career

An even more surprising result, because the Paralympian has only been undertaking this new sporting career for a few months , after competing in canoeing at both the 2024 Paris Paralympics and the Tokyo Paralympic Games. Given his debut, he is already dreaming of the Olympics in Los Angeles. “The dream would be to reach the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028,” he confides, “but to reach that goal, a lot of work is still needed. The Italian record is a positive sign, but I am still far from the results needed to excel in the world. I am happy with this new sporting adventure and I hope to be able to achieve similar or better results than those I had in canoeing, which took me to the Tokyo and then Paris Olympics.”

The story of the champion

Kwadzo was an orphan from Ghana , his country of origin, but has been living in Italy for 25 years. He was saved first by a local area, then by an American nurse, and finally by a young Italian volunteer. Stefano Cassinelli, the current mayor of Dervio, who brought him to Italy to allow him to be treated for a malformation in his leg. In Dervio, Kwadzo found not only a family and friends. In Dervio, he also discovered his talent: sports, rowing first and now the javelin, shot put and discus throw. With canoeing, he won Italian titles and achieved excellent international rankings, including Paralympic placings. His story is a novel , and in fact a book has even been written about him. It is entitled “In the wind of desires – true story of the paralympic canoeist Kwadzo Klokpah”, evidently only the first chapter of a possible saga.

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