Paracycling

[JK]

Keep your eyes peeled for former GB Trail Orienteer (and WTOC multi medallist) Karen Darke in the Paralympic Cycling at Brands Hatch.

Her start block in the time trial is just after 12:30. She'll also be in the Road Race on Fri morning.

JK

[JK]

Karen's start time in the H1-2 time trial (hand bike) is 16:36 today

http://www.london2012.com/paralympics/c ... index.html

[JK]

It looks like silver for Karen:

http://www.london2012.com/paralympics/c ... index.html

[kedge]

Karen did well today: she was expecting possibly Bronze at the very best, but excepting the USA athlete, who was a class apart, she was two minutes clear of all the others.
Brands Hatch has some brutal hills, with some riders almost coming to a halt at times.

Karen goes again in the H1-2 road race on Friday at 10.30 Here's hoping!

[AndyO]

oh, that paracycling

[Clive Coles]

Like your picture Andy

But seriously , having experienced Paralympic sport last Monday for the first time , I have to respect what these Guys and Girls are achieving on a (financial) shoe string. They put many of our sportsman (especially some professional sportsmen) to shame. They are not only dedicated, focused and spend hours in training. Many are also overcoming impairments could have caused some of us to give up on life. They are amazing athletes. Just to be there representing their Country in the Paralympics is an achievement in itself. The medals are the iceing on the cake. Well done Karen, well done team GB.

It is difficult to single out any particular sporting achievement ~ the media have their favourites. But for me the excitement of the crowd in the Olympic Stadium as we watched the one legged high jumper from Fiji clear the bar to take the gold medal was a "memorable moment". He dropped his crutches, hopped straight at the bar and executed an increadible forward role. What technique ~ that bar was about the hight of a normal door frame.

Wouldn't it be good if the large commercial sponsors, whose names were plastered on the bill boards and flashed up on our TV screens, continued to support paralympic sport ~ these athletes deserve and need sustained funding.

[Kitch]

Pistorius' moaning the other day set me thinking a bit more about the paralympics and I concluded that its a mistake to think of it in the same terms as the Olympics, where Gold is what we are most interested in.
There are many conversations going on with people bemused and baffled that a swimmer with no arms can be competing against someone with 2, that a runner with mild cerbral palsy races one with clearly more severe restrictions, the question being raised "how can that be fair?"
And that is where by thinking in Olympic terms we miss the point.
Its not fair.
But that doesn't stop these people from striving to be the very best that they can.
Many know they can never have a hope of winning, (for example because they have the wrong complement of limbs)
but that doesn't stop them and they don't complain like Pistorius.
Paralympians set an example not just to other disabled people about what can be achieved despite disability, they set an example to anyone who ever thinks "its not fair"
the point being - that should not stop you from being your best.
In the Paralympics its proper to say that its not the winning its the taking part.

[JK]

Well said Kitch.

Here is a more accurate description of the different forms of paralympic cycling:
http://media-cache-ec5.pinterest.com/up ... GCvx_f.jpg

If you haven't been watching the Paralympics, things to look out for (as well as the high jump Kitch mentioned), blind long jump, blind football, one-legged cycling and of course wheelchair basketball which is IMO a far more interesting sport than watching 7'+ guys leaning up and dropping the balls in the baskets.

My highlight: Richard Whitehead's run in the 200m final. He is a double above the knee amputee and runs with stiff legs. He holds amuptee world records for Marathon and 1/2 M in ... 2:42 and 1:14 respectively. They are both considerably better than I have done - probably faster than most on this forum I guess. Once London 2012 was announced he wanted to take part, but was told he couldn't do the marathon, that was wheelchairs only. He was told the longest distance he could do was 200m. His first 80m is poor, but he certainly flies towards the end and gets a time of sub 25s, which again is very impressive.

[graeme]

Its not fair.

Of course: it's more about whether its a good race or not. Nobody would consider letting a wheelchair athlete in the olympic marathon, because their 50min winning margin would look farcical.
But Pistorius is an Olympian because it's deemed "fair". So "fairness" is important to him.
And when you think about it, what Pistorius is saying means "If I had longer blades I'd be a medal contender in the real olympics".

[Gnitworp]

I was wondering whether spring loaded running shoes are, or could be, illegal in the 'Real' Olympics?

[Scott]

Indeed they are. IAAF Rule 143 covers this at some length, including:

[...] shoes, however, must not be constructed so as to give an athlete any unfair additional assistance, including by the incorporation of any technology which will give the wearer any unfair advantage.

[Kitch]

Graeme
I'm not sure you can conclude that fairness is important to Pistorius, only that he wants to win, all too often the two are not related.
I wouldn't call him a real Olympian - not in terms of ideals and atitude.
On the same basis and amply demonstrated this week, he's not much a Paralympian either.

And what's this "real Olympics"??

[JK]

...
And what's this "real Olympics"??

A figment of his imagination just like the surreal Olympics and unreal Olympics.

[graeme]

kitch: I complete agree with you, so maybe you misunderstand me?
Here's the argument...
Pistorius can only run in the Olympics because running with blades vs calves is deemed to be fair. So more precisely its the regulations based on perception of fairness which are critical to him.
...which aren't necessarily related to actual fairness either...

Whatever, he's a great athlete, an inspiration, and he's run in the Olympic Games. Good luck to him!

[AndyO]

Whatever, he's a great athlete, an inspiration, and he's run in the Olympic Games. Good luck to him!

I agree, Graeme. I saw him on the One Show (before his race) and he is a great spokesperson for sport in general, and was hugely complimentary to these Paralympics for the organisation, and for taking it seriously. The huge ticket sales is evidence of how the games have captured the public imagination, and it must be brilliant for all the athletes to compete in a big stadium in front of a big appreciative crowd. One point that Pistorius made was striking, that the Games were about athletes abilities, about what athletes can do rather than what they can't.

On his "moan" after his race, I think you have to put it in context. There are some differences between athletes in the same category, so absolute "fairness" is for the most part not possible, and in the end doesn't matter when everyone is trying their very best. He seems to have been trying to make the point to officials before the race that the length of blades is supposed to be matched to what the length of the leg would have been, and in Oliveira's case he felt that was not the case. If having a longer blade would improve performance, then he is correct and "fairness" is compromised. I must admit I don't know the extent to which it might affect performance, but I'm guessing that Pistorius does, which is why he was pissed off. Does he want to win? does a bear sh!t in the woods?