Paracycling

[Mrs H]

Ali, It's ridiculous to suggest that there is a moral obligation to get excited about the paralympics - who has even hinted at that. Just ignore the whole thing if you don't like it. I'm absolutely loving it but then I'm always looking for reasons to be cheerful so despite being extremely un-exited about football I'm still avidly supporting the fantasy league. ' If you only enjoy things if they relate directly to you then you narrow the field of potential pleasure.

Dave couldn't you have found someone who really wanted to go to give the ticket too? you can't get them for love nor money.

As to whether you are both sad - well only you know how you are feeling.

[awk]

but does that mean we should all feel a moral duty to get excited about it?

I don't feel any moral duty. After being totally wrapped up in the Olympics, I expected to find the Paralympics a bit of an anti-climax. Instead, I've enjoyed another 10 days or so of excellent competition, as engrossing as the original, discovering yet more new sports (e.g. the wheelchair basketball, which has been brilliant- and I find basketball dull, dull, dull) . Moral duty has never come into it.

[Mrs H]

....and it was my birthday .....and I had my two beautiful daughters with me.....best birthday ever.....wish Dan had been there.... then you'd have seen the meaning of excited

[mappingmum]

what about the hundreds of thousands of people (of which I happen to be one) with other medical conditions e.g. epilepsy / diabetes / strokes / cancer / heart / kidney disease...?

Steve Redgrave (diabetes)
Dai Greene (epilepsy)

[Ali Wood]

Happy birthday Mrs H

[Ali Wood]

Steve Redgrave (diabetes)
Dai Greene (epilepsy)

These two have competed at the Olympics and have overcome considerable challenges to get that far, not the Paralympics, so I don't understand your reference.
If you continue the road to development of all sorts of classes within the Paras then logically people like Steve and Dai would qualify for classes of their own!! (Maybe they would already???? ) Where do you draw the line? This is where it seems a bit arbitrary to me.

[andypat]

Personally, I'd abolish the disabled category in Trail O all together, and have just one Open category that disabled people can compete in on equal terms. I thought that was the beauty of it. Stop patronizing them by segregating them.

You've probably thought about this, but wasnt the whole point of trail O to encourage disabled persons to take up orienteering, and dont you think getting humped by vastly experienced able bodied competitors would have the opposite effect?

[Gnitworp]

Yes, but some of them might still feel patronized (e.g., Ali Wood if he were eligible )
and aren't there a good number of 'vastly experienced' former able-bodied orienteers who are now eligible?

[awk]

Where do you draw the line? This is where it seems a bit arbitrary to me.

One simply draws the line as best one can, and compete on the rules. Those sorts of decisions are made all the time in all sorts of areas, and many lines are pretty arbitrary. It doesn't make the competition any less exciting.

I thought that was the beauty of it.

For some. Personally, by taking the competitive physical element out, it had rather the opposite effect on me when I tried it.

[JK]

As I was at the WTOC I do note that the Para's ( more positive sounds like they leap out of planes) were allowed more time to travel round the course -which did seem fair as they were distinctly slower if they weren't power assisted.
I'm also aware that the Team event requires a Para to be included and that our entrant (my friend John Crosby -who qualifies because he has knees that are not his own) is actually quite a capable walker (I even have a picture of him jogging on smooth grass) but that another Brit who spends his time in a motorised wheelchair doesn't qualify because his condition "may not be permanent". Rather difficult rules to understand.
For those who doubt there is a physical element in Trail O - I was so tired after the three/four days (I did also do two Jubilee 5 events but was on a shorter course than the experts on some days) that I had to stop the car and be sick on the way home (I know I'm not the fittest but...).

I have a few bones of contention with the above

Firstly it is not normal to give Paras more time to get round the course, but it is common to offer this to Wheelchairs in certain circumstances (ETOC this year they should have been given extra time on Day 1 and weren't). I don't recall our Paras being given extra time at WTOC - I am fairly certain it was only wheelchairs (but I don't know whether the Russian wheelchair guys in Open also got the same dispensation).

Secondly the team member you mention has problems walking any distance on the flat and does so slowly. To suggest that he can currently run in the context of orienteering is quite a serious allegation, even if only on smooth grass. As Team Manager for this year's international events I can't comment any further on his disability nor on the details of the other prospective member beyond the fact that the rules are quite clear on permanent disability and I am sure his condition will be re-assessed in time for the next season. If I were to hope that he is in our Para team next year then that is the same as wishing his condition is permanent - so it is hard to know what to wish.

JK (who has one thigh 5cm smaller than the other so always did better at anti-clockwise MMs than clockwise ones)