Paralympics 2008

[Barb]

Why are none of us talking about this? It starts in 3 weeks. I think the icons for the events look really cool. You can see them on the official site: http://en.paralympic.beijing2008.cn/index.shtml
Hoping coverage for this in the US is good. This will be the first one that C will be old enough to truly 'get'. I hope it is inspiring for him. He has zero interest in playing sports but maybe this will show him some opportunities that are out there beyond basketball and racing.

[Dodger67]

Two of the South African team members were at school with me. The world wheelchair marathon champion, Ernst van Dyk, was a few years behind me (2 or 3 grades) and weightlifter Moekie Grobbelaar (If English is your only language, forget about trying to pronounce her name) was a couple of years ahead of me.
Moekie actually used be the junior national archery champion, but switched to weightlifting later.

[angel]

God i would love to do something like this. I have never been involved in sports but i was built for them. I want to get into wheelchair racing but it is really expensive!!!

Angel

[Dodger67]

Ummm... How to put this delicately....
you're too old, Sorry!
Wheelchair racing should be started in the early teens, if not earlier.

But with your long reach, have you tried basketball?
Clubs usually have spare chairs, you don't need to splash out $$$ for one if you're not going to be an elite player. The other nice thing about basketball is that guys & galls play together, so its a lot easier to get a team together than if they were separate mens and ladies teams.

[angel]

It's okay dodger i can take it. Actually i didn't think about the racing myself a guy i know that has SB who races all over the world was the one that suggested it to me. He said i have the reach, I have the speed, and i am in great shape. I am sure i won't be doing paraolympics stuff but racing would be fun.
At conference there are long distances that one must travel to get from place to place. I always take my chair cause i could not walk the distance (those hotels are huge) He caught up with me and said if you can go that fast in this "piece of crap chair" then you would kick A%* racing. He is in his 40's.

Don't know just a thought.
Basketball i have played a little with the kids at the hospital.

Angel

[Dodger67]

Well then, get off your ass, join a club and have FUN!!

[Barb]

Hey Angel, check and see if there is a Blaze program near you http://blazesports.com/ I am pretty sure that they have adult programs as well. :Banane21:

[Barb]

Read Original Article Here (http://www.al.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-38/1220156383263380.xml&storylist=alabamanews)

8/31/2008, 12:00 a.m. ET By FOLASADE JOHN
The Associated Press http://www.al.com/images/spacer.gif
CLAY, Ala. (AP) — Josh Berenotto doesn't want you to know that he used to be afraid of the water.
Floaties on his arms and clutching the side of the pool, Josh would scream and punch if someone tried to get him to swim.
Now the 19-year-old with spina bifida dives 10 feet underwater to pick up 10-pound bricks, training long hours for competition with Team USA.
At the recent International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Junior World games in New Jersey, Berenotto set a record in swimming and came home to Clay with a handful of medals, including a gold medal in swimming.
"At first," he said, "I was shocked. Then I just felt privileged to win an international award for my country."
The next gold medal in his sights, Berenotto said, is the 2012 Paralympics in Switzerland.
Being paralyzed from the waist down has never stopped Berenotto from excelling in sports. Besides swimming for Team USA, he also does shot put, discus, javelin, weightlifting, basketball, archery and, most recently, table tennis.
He has become quite popular around the Lakeshore Foundation, where he trains and helps children play sports.
Children with spina bifida have begun to look up to him, said Kevin Orr, who taught Berenotto how to tie his shoes and was one of the coaches for the 2008 Paralympic Games.
"They look at him, and they think, `I can do that,'" Orr said.
Spina bifida is the most common birth defect in America, according to the National Spina Bifida Association. Every day, eight children are born with the defect.
"It is a very complicated birth defect that involves all of the body systems, because it is a defect in your spine," said Patricia Switzer, executive director of the Spina Bifida Association of Alabama.
The spinal column does not close correctly and is left open. The most common form of spina bifida, myelomeningocele, happens when the spine comes out of the back, where it may be surrounded by a sac of spinal fluid.
"It literally means your back is open," Switzer said.
The nerves in the spine are not protected by the vertebrae where the opening occurs, so there is nerve damage. Children with spina bifida often develop other difficulties such as scoliosis, paralysis, learning deficiencies and hydrocephalus as a result.
There are many factors in the defect, like the mother's family history, but taking a folic acid supplement three months before conception and through pregnancy reduces the risk of spina bifida by 70 percent.
Berenotto's mother, Laurie Berenotto, remembered the moment she found out her son had spina bifida. She was at the hospital, delivering her son by Caesarean section, and she was unable to see her son because her view was blocked by a white tarp.
"My husband was above my head. He just went white. I asked him, `What's wrong,' and he said, `Nothing.' I said, `Yes, there is. What's wrong?'" Laurie Berenotto recalled.
"Josh had come out with his back toward my husband. In most cases it is like there is a big bubble on the back, but with Josh it was like there was just a piece of Saran Wrap over the opening."
An operation was performed on Berenotto to close the hole in his back four days after his birth. It was the first of almost 40 surgeries.
"Nineteen years ago, I couldn't have imagined all of this," Berenotto's mother said.
It wasn't until the Berenottos found the Spina Bifida Association that they were able to make sense of their son's defect.
"Someone would meet us, and they would say, `He needs to be involved in this,'" Berenotto's father, Tony, said. "Now he's got more going on than one of these soccer moms with a teenage cheerleader."
When asked about his future, Berenotto is still focused on his athletics.
"The Paralympics is my next big goal," he said, " but I hope to be married one day, if I can ever ask a girl out."

[stub20]

There is alot of opportunity for sport. As ive mentioned earlier, i do alot of swimming, and i know all of the British squad that are in beijing at the moment. One other sport that has been rising up the ranks that i actually didnt know is tennis. It actually is on the same tour as the LTA, so is doing really well.

I too hope there is alot of coverage over here, especially with the London games coming up, the Olympics was on 24/7 here, so it would be wrong for the Paras not to get the same.

[Justy Me]

I actually tried tennis and it didn't quite work out for me.....I loved playing sledge hockey; I was actually supposed to train for the paralympics but they never included sledge hockey as one of the competitive sports. I felt really passionate about that sport, so it's a shame that I didn't get to see where it would've led me. Would have been nice to be a part of history....but hey, I made it to the second page of my local newspaper as being the first girl to earn the team a trophy :D