Members of the 2012 U.S. Paralympic basketball team warm up before a scrimmage with Great Britain’s paralympic team at the University of East London’s campus facility, the Sports Dock, in London, today. (DoD Photo)
After the glamor, excitement and massive coverage of the London 2012 Olympics, and in view of the start of the Republican National Convention and the imminent landfall of hurricane Isaac, I hope that the International Paralympic Games that start tomorrow in London will get the attention and support they deserve.
First, here is some information on the US Paralympics:
“Founded in 2001, US Paralympics, a division of the US Olympic Committee (you can visit them atwww.teamusa.org), is a leader in the Paralympic sports movement. They employ sports programs, education and terrific work with community organizations, medical facilities and a number of government agencies and they are Making a Difference for people with physical, mental and visual disabilities.
You might be surprised to learn – I was – that what we now know as the Paralympic movement can trace its roots back to 1888, when there were sports clubs for the deaf in Berlin. World War II, with so many people returning from war with injuries and in need of assistance, brought this movement to the forefront of everyone’s attention and it grew quickly.
The Stoke Mandeville Games for wheelchair athletes commenced on the same day as the opening of the 1948 Olympic Games. In 1960 these became the Paralympic Games (the Greek word “para” means beside or alongside so the Paralympics are meant to be “alongside” the Olympic games), and today that is exactly what they are. A winter version was added in 1976 and since 1988 (summer games) and 1992 (winter games) the Paralympics have been in the same cities and venues as the Olympics themselves.
Today there are 25 sports (covering both summer and winter events) with competitors that include people who are amputees, blind or visually impaired, paralyzed or in a wheelchair, dealing with traumatic brain injuries or are mentally impaired.”
Read more here
Many of those participating will be military veterans who have already participated in the 2012 “Warrior Games” at the Air Force Academy just outside Colorado Springs back in May.
The 2012 Warrior Games were hosted by the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Paralympics Military Program with over 200 wounded, injured and ill service members and veterans from the U.S. Army, Marines, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Special Operations Command and from the British armed forces participating.
We covered the Warrior Games here and showed several photos, some of which appear below.
====
===
===
===
And the following from American Forces Press Service’s Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.
The Paralympic Games, held every four years following the Summer Olympics, are a multisport event for athletes with physical, mental and sensorial disabilities.
More than 200 Paralympians, staged at the University of East London campus, are prepared to compete in 20 sporting events, including wheelchair basketball, wheelchair fencing, wheelchair rugby, swimming, shooting and sailing as they serve as American ambassadors for their respective sports.
“It’s an amazing experience,” said Navy Lt. Bradley Snyder, a member of the 2012 U.S. Paralympic swimming team. “It’s a lot of things happening at once. It can be a little overwhelming. You come to processing and they hand you $3,000 worth of apparel and things like that. It’s a lot happening at once.”
Snyder, slated to swim in seven events, compared the excitement of competing in front of large crowds with his previous experience as a competitor.
“The swimming venue, I think, holds 18,000 people, so everyone’s running through their heads, ‘What’s it going to be like to swim in front of 18,000 people?’” he said.
“I was a collegiate athlete for four years [and] I swam for 12 years. I think the largest crowd I ever swam in front of was in the hundreds. To be able to go out in front of 18,000 people is going to be an amazing experience.
“It’s been a challenge, I think, to … stay focused on what we’re trying to stay focused on, and at the same time, utilize the adrenaline rush we’re going to have to our advantage.” he added.
Michael Prout Jr., of West Springfield, Mass., also a member of the swimming team, will compete in the 100-meter butterfly, backstroke and freestyle, 200-meter individual medley and the 400-meter freestyle.
“For the past two years, I’ve been living out in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center with the resident team out there,” he said. “There’s nine of us, actually, that made the Paralympic team this time around from that area. I was out there just training full-time instead of focusing on anything else. I think that is going to help out a lot.”
Prout noted even though he’s competed in the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece, and in Beijing in 2008, he still feel the excitement of the approaching competition.
Read more here
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.