BAQUBA , Iraq — The Iraqi teenager does not look like a traditional athlete: Her right leg is amputated at the thigh, her left at the knee, and her right arm ends at the biceps.

But when Najla Imad Lafta, 14, plays table tennis, her torso turns as smoothly as a dancer’s to meet the ball and she returns it so fast her opponents are hard put to send it back .

She just brought home her fourth silver and her fourth bronze medal from an international sporting tournament for the disabled in Egypt in June.

“In fourth grade, I realized I was different from the other girls,” said Najla as she sat in a narrow wheelchair in her family’s home on the outskirts of Baquba, a provincial capital in Iraq. She lives on an unpaved street where no one has indoor plumbing and the electricity is erratic.