Paralympics and Disabled Athletes

Before our class discussion on disabled athletes, I had a very wrong outlook on the paralympics.  I had the image that it was a friendly global competition between disabled people to make them feel "athletic", which would boost their confidence.  I figured that all the competitors in the paralympics were confined to a wheel chair, and played these "friendly" games with one another because it was a way to play sports while being on an equal playing field because of their disabilities.  However, as I have looked into it more, disabled athletes competing in the olympics range from being blind, deaf, missing limb(s), walking/running with limps, etc.  Also, these games are FAR FROM friendly competition.  These are elite athletes who have taken what they have been given and trained just as hard and tedious as any elite olympian.  The paralympians put 110% effort towards their competition in order to earn the national pride of winning a medal for their country.  Just like the olympics, paralympians must qualify for these prestigious games, as they are not just a "come one, come all" athletic event, as I had thought in the past.  To put in perspective just how talented and athletic these paralympians are, double amputee Oscar Pistorius from South Africa ran 45.39 in the 400 meter dash, whereas the average olympic qualifyer runs 45-46 seconds.  Therefore, Pistorius has recently made strides (no pun intended) in competing with able bodied athletes, and wants to compete in upcoming able bodied olympics.  Here is a short video on Oscar's performance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3M9cdo-eYI&feature=related



Oscar is just one paralympian out of thousands who truely have an athletic talent.  They train just as hard (if not harder, due to the fact they need to make up for their disability) as an olympian.  As shown from the above picture, many disabled athletes have just as much (if not more) talent and strength than an abled bodied athlete.  They definitely need more credit from society and really hope to see the paralympics televised some day, as this really opened my eyes to the elite level of competition in disabled athletes.