I am so glad that I had a chance to watch some of the Paralympics! Amazing, times a hundred!

One of my realizations was that these sports have a lot of different rules. Sitting volleyball? One announcer mentioned that competitors were not allowed to contact the ball if their “bottom” was off of the floor.

The other realization was how inclusive this experience was. For example, while watching a goalball competition, I noticed that one of the four people who stood on the corners to retrieve the ball after it went out of bounds had no arms, but two hands! He picked up the ball by kneeling and then using his hands to grasp the ball. Then he dropped the ball on the indicated line. So cool, and made me think – why not? Why couldn’t he be a ball retriever?

Here are the events I managed to see:

Wheelchair basketball. The strategies were the same (boxing out, cutting to the basket, “stepping” back from the opponent before shooting to gain space), but the implementation was so impressive. Just watching the competitors’ abilities to manipulate their wheelchairs was amazing. And did you hear some of the players talk about a “jump shot”? Love it.

Wheelchair rugby! There were several differences from wheelchair basketball. The “goal” is a painted rectangle on the floor on each end instead of a net. The players can keep the ball in their laps – no bouncing or dribbling required. But the opponents can “steal” the ball at any time, even when the ball is in the opponent’s lap! And the chairs and wheels look slightly different, which, I learned allowed the collisions! Not just ‘boxing out’ but actually ramming into an opponent! Apparently, the chairs are actually designed to ram into another chair with bumpers on the front!

Goalball! Have you ever heard of this sport? For visually impaired athletes, it uses a ball with bells inside that one team throws at another team’s goal. The defending team has to rely on the sound of the ball to deflect it, although the goalball server had to make the ball bounce once on the server’s side and once on the receiver’s side – without seeing!! Reading about it was not at all the same as watching it. Such strategy! Talent, definitely!

Archery – one gold medal winner had no arms so he held onto the bow with his foot!

Long jump for the visually impaired – you have to rely on an assistant to get you set up to be able to run straight down the lane and then yell at you from the end while you are running to give you a clue when to jump! Balance control, extraordinaire. After all, how many of us can walk in a straight line while looking at the line? Now try that with your eyes closed!

But I think that the most incredible sport I saw was the swimming. Some swimmers had to hold onto an assistant’s hand or a special band (some held the band in their mouths!) to start because they couldn’t grab onto the pool deck. And what about the swimmers who had no arms? Amazing. Holding a breath for the length of the pool or being able to take a breath without the use of one’s arms – wow. Flip-turning by the visually impaired folks that required an assistant to tap them on their backs/heads a certain number of strokes before the wall? Another wow.

• FYI – a comment about “para” as a prefix. American English uses that prefix a lot. The Greek origin means “at or to one side of, beside, side by side (paragraph, parallel, paralysis) or “beyond, past, or by” (paradox). Over time, this prefix came to designate objects or activities auxiliary to or derivative of that denoted by the base word, which is why Americans use it for professional titles considered ancillary or subsidiary to roles requiring more training (paralegal, paraprofessional).

Overall, I was COMPLETELY impressed with what humans can do and how great the world is with figuring out how to adapt so that all humans can participate in all activities.

AND, I was beyond impressed at the behavior of the “competitors.” They displayed such warmth towards each other after the competitions ended. Lots of tears from me😊. I can’t wait until the next Paralympics!

Read More about Olympics 2024 – Part Two – Paralympics