If you want to see some pretty awesome athletes in action, watch some of the Paralympics! I was doing some catching up late this afternoon and watched the downhill ski events. I am so amazed at what these people can do. Whether their disability has been with them since birth, was the result of a degenerative disease or accident, or the result of military service, they are impressive.
For the downhill ski events, they first had the vision impaired skiers race. These skiers have limited vision and follow a guide who has on a shirt that the skier can see. For some, it's a bright neon color, for others it was black. The guide also has a mic so they can talk to the skier they're leading and help guide them down the mountain.
The next skiers down were the standing skiers. OK, some of these have amazing strength and balance. It looked like to ski in this event, the skiers were either missing a leg or part of their arm. By not having a second ski pole, it's much harder to keep your balance. Of course, watching the skiers with one leg keep upright and make it down the mountain was impressive.
Last to go were the mono-skiers, or sit skiers. These guys (and girls) have a lot of upper body strength to control the mono-ski.
The downhill races were run on the same course that they used during the Olympics earlier this month. There were similar problems - a warm day, soft snow that froze overnight and became a sheet of ice, a tough course overall. We saw some pretty spectacular crashes, one American ended up in the hospital (no serious injuries from what I heard).
I can't wait to watch more of the Paralympics, we've got a bunch on the DVR as we're not up in the middle of the night to see them live. In case anyone is wondering, the snowboard events are Friday night.
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