by site editor Rick McCharles
Every two years the Paralympics get some media attention. Sadly, hard working athletes with physical disabilities are much ignored the rest of the time.
The 2010 Winter Paralympics, officially known as the X Paralympic Winter Games, will be celebrated in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia between March 12 to March 21, 2010. …
Five sports will be on the 2010 program:
Alpine skiing
Biathlon
Cross-country skiing
Wheelchair curling
Sledge hockey
The big story of this meet I expect will be blind skier Brian McKeever, who will compete in both the Olympics and Paralympics.
Likely this is the best time to talk about opportunities for improving the plight of disabled athletes.
I’m looking for a study abroad program for my friend Barkat Ullah from Bangladesh.
A full-time gymnast who had competed internationally in Asian regional competitions, Barkat was partially paralyzed on a fluke pommel horse fall.
Today he is a University student playing able bodied table tennis, the only sport left he could do with limited lower body mobility. But he aspires to help build Paralympic sport in his fast developing nation.
If you have any advice or information that might help Barak’s cause, please leave a comment.
Everyone in the gymnastics community worldwide needs rally around any of our athletes catastrophically injured.
Although the name was originally coined as a portmanteau combining ‘paraplegic’ (due to its origins as games for people with spinal injuries) and ‘Olympic‘ the inclusion of other disability groups meant that this was no longer considered appropriate. The present formal explanation for the name is therefore that it derives from the Greek preposition ????, pará (“beside” or “alongside”) and thus refers to a competition held in parallel with the Olympic Games.
Paralympics 2010 – official home page
Gymnastics Coaching.com 