ELLIE'S BLOG on Living Well with Disability

The Torch is lit!!

The  troupe of disabled dancers celebrate it's arrival 

Let The Games Begin

China has done an excellent job of  welcoming the Paralympic team. In Beijing's brand-new airport the Government has spent $1.7 million to lower washbasins and handrails, add Braille signs and transform 214 toilets into the accessible variety. China has started to make progress for its 83 million disabled citizens including providing handicapped-accessible buses; adding wheelchairs at park entrances; installing elevators in the Forbidden City and building miles of bumpy, raised-patterned sidewalks for the blind. Conditions in Beijing are far better than in provincial cities and rural areas though.

In the Paralympic Village itself the entire complex meets the specified accessibility standards to allow athletes independent living conditions.  Tactile and accessible pavements as well as other facilities for people with a disability have also been installed in public areas . The serving tables were all lowered,the passageways were also enlarged and wheelchair traction services by golf carts were also made available. In addition at  the village opening a memorial wall was dedicated to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

In the 2008 games in Beijing we had two Paralympic athletes  competing in the Olympic games.

Natalie du Toit a swimmer who carried the flag for South Africa In the opening ceremonies was the first female amputee to compete in an able- bodied Olympic event.     

Natalia Partyka  from Poland also competed in the able-bodied Olympics. She was born with a right arm that ends at the elbow but managed to beat the Chinese at table tennis this summer. However she like Natalie du Toit was not successful in medaling in their able-bodied Olympic events .

  Oscar Pistorius the double amputee known as the blade runner because of his prosthetic legs won a legal battle in May for the right to run in the Beijing Olympics against able- bodied athletes. However he failed to meet the qualifying time in the 400.   He still has his sights set on qualifying in the next Olympics . But he won gold here in the Paralympics and he is  expected to win more.

There have been so many advances in technology that are so helpful in many paralympic sports. These are especially  apparent in the use of prosthetics for amputees' and wheelchair design especially engineered for the sport. Basketball,tennis racing and Rugby specifically.

But there are many sports that are not dependent or appropriate for technology.  In fact it could be a hindrance.  The first sports that comes to mind are swimming,rowing and sailing .Here athletes remove their prosthetic arms or legs before they enter the water or boat.

Jessica Long a swimmer from the united states

takes her 4th gold medal  

Erin Popovich of the U.S. team claimed her    fourth gold in the woman's 400 M. freestyle in World and in Paralympic record time

 Natalie Dutoit wins 5 gold medals

Rowers also remove their prostheses    

Gold medal U.S. Sitting Volleyball team                          

Judo

The saddle and other seating arrangements are assistive device's with a modification to stabilize the athlete safely in an appropriate seat a

Mclain Ward of the US, riding 'Sapphire' crashes the final fence of the equestrian individual show jumping final

 Britain' Lee Pearson wins his ninth Gold

     FENCING

These chairs are anchored with short cord to the floor to allow upper body movements yet prevent the athlete from falling forward

Power lifting- the lower body is anchored

 A well positioned Track and field discus thrower's

 Long Jump

Casey Tibbs of U.S. competing to the Right

Australia’s Libby Kosmala, 66, did not win a medal in the shooting events at Beijing, but she did compete in her 10th Paralympics. Kosmala has competed in several sports over the years and has won nine golds. And she says, she’ll try to be back for London 2012.