Three months ago, Daniel Kopplow was finishing up his university classes in Cologne, Germany, and wondering what the future held for him.
Late Wednesday afternoon, he boarded a plane for Sydney as the technical adviser for the Cambodian volleyball team that begins play in the eight-team Paralympics competition next Wednesday.
The 26-year-old Kopplow was a physical education student who had already worked with paralyzed athletes in Germany when he heard about the opportunity to work in Cambodia. Five weeks later, he landed in Phnom Penh and along with Cambodian coach Mao Sunly began a twice-a-day training regimen to get the team ready.
“The training needed to be very military-style,” Kopplow said. “But since most of the players were formerly soldiers, they were used to it. They have the discipline they need.
“The players here are different. Almost all suffered land-mine injuries. In Germany, I mostly worked with athletes who had been injured in car accidents, and seemed to have more psychological problems in addition to their injuries.
“Here, I don’t have to be as much of a psychologist,” he said. “We could concentrate on physical training as a team.”
Kopplow was just as thrilled as the players to be going to Sydney. “I was never going to make it to the Olympics as an athlete,” he said. “Now I get to live in the Olympic Village and march into the stadium. “Lucky me.”
