The Winter Games in China have started! But wait, wasn’t that just a few weeks ago? Yes, but those were the Olympics. Now the Paralympic Winter Games are starting. They always take place in the same place a few weeks after the Olympic Games have ended. Athletes with physical disabilities compete in the Paralympics. These are, for example, people who are blind or have a visual impairment, who are in a wheelchair or who are missing an arm or a leg. Some of them have had these disabilities since they were born, others are disabled as a result of an accident or an illness.
The sports are often the same as in the Olympic Games. But sometimes there are differences: Para ice hockey players, for example, do not move on ice skates, but on small sleds while sitting. So many different people can take part, including wheelchair users. In some disciplines there is help from others. In para-skiing, visually impaired athletes have a guide who drives in front of them on skis. The guide shouts signals to the athlete so that he knows where curves or descents are. Maybe you can imagine how much trust it takes!
The Paralympics have been around for more than 50 years. Because of the wars, there were many people who had been injured and had a disability. Only wheelchair athletes took part in the first Paralympics. In the years that followed, however, other people with physical disabilities also had the opportunity to take part in a major sporting event.
Achievements not despite – but with disability
One of them is the track and field athlete Irmgard Bensusan. She has been running since she was a child. During a competition, she fell and was badly injured. The nerves in her leg remained damaged. At that time she was 18 years old. She believed she would never be able to walk again, but luckily there were people who supported her and trained with her in para sports. In the meantime, Irmgard Bensusan has won many para races. Last summer she won a silver medal at the Paralympics in Tokyo.
But you shouldn’t think that sport will happen overnight. On the one hand, there are still no sports clubs in many cities in Germany in which children and adults with disabilities can also take part. On the other hand, not all people with disabilities can do sports. It takes a lot of strength to start exercising after an accident. For example, people who get a prosthetic leg, i.e. a replacement leg, first have to learn to stand on the prosthesis before they can start walking.
Unfortunately, many people are not as interested in the Paralympics as they are in the Olympics. Wrongly so, because the athletes are also setting world records here. They run very similar times and jump similar distances as athletes without disabilities. Sometimes they are even faster.
However, people with disabilities do not want pity or a lot of praise for their achievements. They do not achieve their achievements despite a disability, but simply with a disability. Para athletes want respect and recognition for their achievements, just like those without disabilities.
