More Paralympics

So I don’t know what the coverage of the Paralympics is like in the US, but here they’re getting almost the same amount of airtime as the Olympics did (resolving the question of how long Olympic replays would last), which means I’m getting to see quite a bit of them (makes up for missing so much at tv-less Caltech). That’s praiseworthy in itself: these guys work just as hard and overcome obstacles that are at least as big as those facing the ‘main’ Olympians, but they generally don’t get anywhere near the fame and recognition, since people aren’t interested in watching them. It’s nice that here, at least, lots of people are watching. But I’ve also been blown away by the capacities that the athletes have developed. Last night was the woman’s wheelchair ping pong final, China v China of course, and both players were phenomenal—basically, wheelchair ping pong means you have to stay in one place more or less, and you’re sitting down, so no hitting the ball from above. That means smashing is sort of difficult, but these two women were unfazed, and getting all sorts of spin, reaching huge distances to return shots, and smashing somehow despite the terrible angle. Incredible.

Then today I saw some more: armless equestrian. They hold the reins in their teeth. Wow. Possibly the most impressive thing, though, has to be handless ping pong. The two athletes both had arms which stopped above the elbow, so they had rackets that strapped onto their stumps. To serve, they had to get the ball bouncing on the table, then catch it on their paddle, then throw it up from their paddle and hit it on the way down. And then play out the point with no wrists or fingers to help with spin or finesse, but they did it superbly. I’m totally impressed. Jia You!

(More pictures and exploration notes coming!)