(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) –Members of a Thai youth soccer team and their coach have described their rescue from a flooded cave as a miracle, thanked the experts who saved them and discussed how the experience will affect the rest of their lives.
In their first public remarks since emerging from their two-week ordeal last week, the boys recounted their side of an extraordinary story that captured the imagination of the world.
Dressed in matching team shirts, the boys and their coach appeared happy and relaxed as they faced the world’s media after being discharged from the hospital in Chiang Rai on Wednesday.
The boys, all members of the Wild Boars junior soccer team, introduced themselves to the media, shared their nicknames and told the audience what position they played on the team
Sitting beside the boys were the Thai Navy SEALs who stayed inside the cave with them after they were found, as well as members of the medical team who looked after them after the rescue. In a carefully arranged press conference, for which questions were pre-screened, the boys told of the moment they realized they were trapped, how they adapted to their surroundings and their eventual joy at being found, ten days later.
Authorities said that more than 100 questions were sent in from members of the media, though only a handful were selected. All 12 players and their coach had been under close supervision at Chiang Rai Prachanukroh hospital, near the border with Myanmar, since they were rescued from the cave on July 10.
