2008 Summer Olympic Games: 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing

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[1]Sep 16, 2008
member since: 05/24/02
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The Paralympic Games began on Sept. 6 in Beijing at the same facilities and stadiums used for the Olympic Games. The Closing Ceremony takes place on Wed., Sept. 17. It will be televised live on the Universal Sports channel. You can also watch streaming coverage of the Paralympic Games at Paralympic.tv.

Over 4,200 athletes from 148 countries are competing in 20 sports. Olympic swimmer Natalie du Toit of South Africa has won at least one gold medal at the Paralympics.

I see that there is a sport called goalball for blind athletes. Swimming events are divided up according to disability and severity. There are separate events for completely blind swimmers, legally blind swimmers and those with other disabilities.

Though I don't usually watch the Paralympics myself, it's kind of neat that they have such a competition. It helps include blind and wheelchair-bound individuals in the world of competitive sports and continues the Olympic spirit for a few more weeks each Olympiad. It also helps to show wheelchair-bound children and adults that sports and physical competition are not shut off to them.

However, just as with the regular Olympics, cheating takes place in some events. I know that in wheelchair races, some competitors place sharp objects under their legs or feet. Often the athlete has little or no sensation in their legs so the sharp object doesn't hurt. But the object can still send some sort of electrical signal to the brain that is thought to stimulate the athlete into performing better.

Anyway, catch the Closing Ceremony live on Universal Sports early on Wednesday morning in the U.S.
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[2]Sep 20, 2008
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The 2008 Paralympic Games have ended. South African swimmer Natalie Du Toit was among the stars of those games as she won five gold medals. She plans to return for the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. She will also return for the 2012 Olympic Games. She will try to qualify in both the 10,000k open water swim and the 800m freestyle race. She competed in the 10,000k open water swim at the 2008 Olympic Games.
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[3]Nov 13, 2008
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Universal Sports is showing repeat coverage of the Paralympics. Women's wheelchair basketball is on right now. I was just flipping through channels and saw this. It's not half bad. Obviously it's not the same as regular basketball but the players are definitely athletic. It's not easy to shoot and pass while still handling the wheelchair. The wheelchairs have sharply angled wheels to help the players spin around quickly.

They've switched to the women's 100 m wheelchair sprint. The racers are using special wheelchairs. Their legs are folded up underneath the torso. There is a set of handlebars, kind of like the aero bars you see on time trial/triathlon bikes. There's also a third wheel in front. The racers also wear special gloves that help them strike the wheels quickly without worrying about injuring their fingers from hitting the wheels so hard.
Edited on 11/13/2008 8:31pm
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[4]Nov 13, 2008
member since: 05/24/02
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Sometimes charitable feelings get the better of common sense. The small African nation of Gabon only sent one athlete to the Paralympics, a competitor in the men's 800 m wheelchair race (T54). He showed up in a basketball wheelchair, with just two regular wheels and no separate smaller wheel on each side to help the athlete spin the wheels faster. Every other racer had a three-wheeled wheelchair. Clearly he was out of place and it's questionable whether he should have been allowed to compete. Or at least he should have borrowed a regular racing wheelchair from someone.

In the 800 m race, competitors have to stay in their lane around the first two turns. Then they can cross to the inside and stay on the inside lane for the rest of the race. The Gabon competitor started off incredibly slowly, because he didn't have a racing wheelchair. There's just no way to get much momentum in the chair he was using. Then just seconds after the start, he crossed out of his lane, getting disqualified after about 10-15 m. The other competitors sped along the track, getting up to about 20 mph.

The Gabon competitor just sat dejected in the middle of the track, right on the inside lane. It would have been a simple matter for him to move just 5 feet away to the infield and off the track. He had plenty of time since it took the other racers about 30 seconds to round the track. The officials should also have moved him off the track. Instead, when the other competitors came around, they had to avoid the Gabonese competitor. The Japanese racer hit the Gabon racer's chair, sending his own chair tumbling. His head hit the ground at about 20 mph. He had to be taken off the track on a stretcher. Not good. Since this is a repeat broadcast, I don't know what happened to the Japanese racer. Hopefully he wasn't seriously injured, but it didn't look good. Quite a mess on the part of the officials and the event organizers. The Gabonese racer clearly shouldn't have been there and his incompetence could have literally killed one of the other racers.

It's noble that Thierry Mabicka tried to compete but he needed to do it the right way. It didn't seem like he did any training at all. He couldn't even stay inside his lane for 15 meters.

I just checked the news reports to see what happened with the Japanese racer, Kenji Kotani. Apparently he was OK since he finished the Oita International Wheelchair Marathon event on Nov. 9, 2008.
Edited on 11/13/2008 9:04pm
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2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing

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