Paralympics 2024

 

I watched a portion of the Paralympics events, but there was of course far less coverage on TV than for the Olympics.   Cable channels CNBC and USA broadcast live from Paris in the morning (evening in Paris, that is). 

One quickly becomes aware that Paralympics events have numerous subcategories, due to the many types and degrees of disabilities among the athletes.  Eventually, I decided to look for a simple guide to categories.  Not as easy as one would think!  There’s a long history on Wikipedia of how categories have changed over the years.  I finally found a thorough but clear guide on Yahoo Sports, which also explains that “sometimes when there is not an event available for a particular classification, athletes are given the option of competing up a class with competitors who are less impaired.”

Here, as an example, are the classifications for Running and Jumping from the International Paralympic Committee.  (T = Track).

T11-13             Vision impairment

T20                  Intellectual impairment

T35-38             Co-ordination impairments (hypertonia, ataxia and athetosis)

T40-41            Short stature

T42-44            Lower limb competing without prosthesis affected by limb deficiency, leg length difference, impaired muscle power or impaired passive range of movement

T45-47            Upper limb/s affected by limb deficiency, impaired muscle power or impaired passive range of movement

T61-64             Lower limb/s competing with prosthesis affected by limb deficiency and leg length difference

 See what I mean?   There is also detailed information on the categories and how athletes are placed in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5729340/2024/08/29/paralympic-games-classification-guide/

 

Now for the wheelchair races.   These are not wheelchairs you see on the street!

 

 I wondered about the people’s legs, and found this explanation from the British newspaper, The Telegraph:  “They are normally tucked under the chair very tightly for aerodynamic movement. They are almost in a kneeling position.”

 There was a good-sized crowd and the announcers were knowledgeable and thorough.  This was the Women’s T-53 800 m. final.   Winners were, in order, from Switzerland, Germany, and China.  I later learned that the winner, Catherine Debrunner, went on to win five golds, making her the most successful para-athletics athlete of these games.  When watching T-54 wheelchair racing, I thought the tricky thing is maneuvering one’s wheelchair to pass another racer; a few minutes later, an announcer made the same comment.  Winners were from Switzerland (setting a new record), China and USA.

Even though American TV is definitely going to focus on any American athletes who have a chance of winning a medal, the live programming I saw was very fair.  However, the NBC recap on Friday night, Sept. 6, was quite a different story:  it was Americans, Americans, Americans, until one wondered if any other nation won a medal!  I gave up watching, as it was so annoying.

While racing in any form is fairly easy to understand, other sports can look quite different.  Wheelchair Rugby, for instance.  The semi-final match between the U.S. and Britain featured four players on each side.  They were mostly men, but one of the U.S. players was a woman.  To score, the player possessing the ball wheels into the goal area (end zone?) and gently drops the ball onto the floor.  This happens often, so scores rise quickly and can go back and forth, making an exciting game.  As in regular rugby, players can fall over--but here, it means that their wheelchair has fallen over also; often a wheel has to be re-attached by aides before the person can continue playing. 

The two announcers, both women, informed us that the female player on the American side is a college professor, one of the British players has a Ph.D. in History, and another player has a master’s degree in Accounting from the U. of Arizona.  One American player has no sensation in his hands and must look to see if he is holding the ball.  The USA won this match and went on to  the finals, where they lost to Japan.  The final results were Japan, USA, Australia.  (Doesn’t it seem strange that England did not medal in rugby, of all things?!) 

 On to swimming.  In my opinion, swimming is boring to watch, no matter what type of athletes are competing.  The intrigue in these games is when you can see that athletes have an obvious disability and you wonder how they can do what they do.  (Swimming blind, for example--an announcer wondered how they stay in their lane.)  The favorite, and gold medalist,  in the 50 meter backstroke was Ally Challis, from Great Britain, who lost the lower parts of her arms and legs due to meningitis as a child.

Goal Ball is a unique sport.  Players sit three on a side, and one rolls the ball toward the other side’s net, while the three opponents try to block the ball.  The requirement is limited vision, and players wear blindfolds—I mean. “opaque eyeshades”-- to ensure that they all equal.    This sport was invented in 1946 to help with rehabilitation of wounded veterans.  Clever, yes, but not very interesting to watch.   In the end (matches I did not see), Japan won the men’s Gold and Turkey won the women’s Gold.

Watching the Women’s 100 meter breast stroke, SB7, I was puzzled by one of the national designations:  NPA.  Well, this stands for Neutral Paralympic Athletes.  These are the athletes from Russia and Belarus.  Those two countries are banned from the Olympics on account of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (and Belarus’s support thereof), but individual athletes have been permitted to take part.  In this particular event, an NPA athlete, Mariia Pavlova,  broke the world record and won gold.  The silver went to a British girl, Iona Winnifrith, age—hold your breath—thirteen (13)!

 I happened upon the finals of the S5 50-meter butterfly.  The S5 category includes  “Swimmers with good use of arms, but no torso and leg movement. Also includes swimmers with some limb loss” as defined in the Sporting News.   It is quite something to see swimmers with no arms!   Chinese athletes swept the medals for this event, for the third time.  There’s a really nice homage to winner Guo Jincheng on a website called iscaninfo.com, but I’m unable to copy from that website (and even clicking anywhere on the page links one to some completely different site).

On September 5^th, I saw women’s Sitting Volleyball, the semi-final featuring the U.S. vs. Brazil.  At least this time, the announcers explained the categories:  BS1 = permanent amputee; BS2 = loss of strength and flexibility.  Many of the players were missing the lower part of one leg; some have two legs and can stand, or move on their knees.  The rules require players to be sitting whenever they touch the ball.  You do see a great variety in players at these games: one of the American women is hugely fat; one of the Brazilian women sported yellow eyelids and vivid crimson lips, a very strange look.  In the end, the USA edged out the Brazilians 25 to 22.

The swimming event 4 x 50 Medley, F5, was a relay with swimmers from many countries-- China, Japan, Ukraine, Italy, USA, etc.—and many body types.  In the end, the Chinese team came in first; the USA edged out Ukraine by half a second.  (I hate split second race decisions, whether in swimming or horse racing; I think at that point, it should just be a tie!) 

Even though I saw only a few events, I definitely recommend watching the Paralympic events, and will make more of an effort next time.