Paris showcases Para athletics – runblogrun

Paris showcases Para athletics

It was great to see the Paralympic athletics take place in front of large crowds in Paris.  It is so important to showcase this significant event.  The first thing to recognize is that Para athletes are athletes. Former wheelchair marathon winner, Jean Driscoll, tells the story of someone coming up to her and staying “I think it is just wonderful that you are able to complete a marathon”. Driscoll’s reply: “Oh, No.  You could do one too if you trained 4 hours a day, six daysna week like me”.

It is easy to get confused by the complexity of classifications in para-athletes and not to know your T64 from your T37! Every athletics fan knows that Noah Lyles won the Olympic 100m but who won Paralympic 100m?  Well there were a dozen of them.  The classification system is complex but it is important to achieve fair competition so that athletes compete against people  with equal levels of disability.  You cannot have a visually impaired athlete competing against a leg-amputee and a wheelchair-user in a race that is fair to all. .  Events are split by classification – with visual impairment, cerebral palsy, amputee and wheelchair in separate categories and indeed with subdivisions within the categories in an attempt to create a level playing field for every athlete.  This does result in a large number of races with up different 100m races in 17 different classifications for men and 15 for women.

Para sport is sometimes called adapted sport and that is a good descriptor.  Basically, it involves taking the core track and field disciplines and adapting them to allow athletes with varying levels and types of disability to participate in running, jumping and throwing competitively. Take running.  If you can run, you run.  If you don’t have two legs, you can run with a prosthetic.  If you cannot see, you can run with a guide.  If you cannot walk at all, then race in a wheelchair.  Races range from 100m to 5000m – no hurdles or steeplechase.

A fascinating aspect of wheelchair racing is that it is common for the same athlete to compete in 100m and distance events.  Hannah Cockroft, who often competes at 100m and 800m, told me that she trains six days a week – three on speed and sprinting and three on strength and endurance

Disability athletes throw the javelin, discus and shot.  There is no hammer but there is, in two classes, the club throw.  Jo Butterfield a global medalist…