Book Club Claire is back for another session of book club! This time we've got our first Paralympics-related selection: "Driven to Ride: The True Story of an Elite Athlete Who Rebuilt His Leg, His Life, and His Career" by two-time Paralympic Snowboarder Mike Schultz. In the genre of athlete memoir, how does this one rate with us?
Alison has made it to Beijing just in time for big breaking news about the participation of Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) and Belarus in the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics. Plus, Jill covers the torch relay and Alison shares how Beijing is different than other big cities.
What Olympic and Paralympic thoughts were on your mind as we closed out 2021? We take listener calls and have a ton of fun chatting with you!
Today we're on the shooting range with Paralympian McKenna Geer. McKenna is a Paralympic bronze medalist in the sport of rifle shooting. At Rio she competed in the R4 - Mixed 10m Air Rifle Standing SH2 and earned 24th place and the R5 – Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH2, where she took home the bronze medal. We talked with McKenna about how rifle works on the Paralympic side of the sport.
This week visually impaired Paralympian Ness Murby is back to talk about how visual impairments work in his para athletics event, the discus. Ness told about the classification process, the importance of having a sports assistant, and who was more popular at the Rio 2016 Paralympics, him or his service dog Lexington.
The Velvet Voice of John Register returns, and this time we're talking about his Paralympic experiences. John tells us how he was on track to make the Olympic team until a horrific accident closed that door and opened a window into the world of the Paralympics.
John talks about learning how the other half lives when experiencing the Atlanta 1996 Games, and how good hosts can create an exceptional Games, like Sydney did in 2000. Plus, an Aretha Franklin encounter!
In our efforts to learn more about how para sports work, we talk with 1996 and 2000 Paralympian John Register about the mechanics of running blades (aka running legs).
We are back from vacation just in time to celebrate Tessa Gobbo Day. There's so much to catch up on that this week's show turned into one big update. We definitely need some Oreos and a nap after this.
Para athletes undergo classification tests so they're placed into competitive groups that all have similar limitations. Unfortunately for the casual viewer, they seem to be random letters and numbers that don't make much sense. We wanted to learn more about this system, so we talked with Giles Long MBE, who is a seven-time medalist Paralympian in swimming, including three golds. Giles also heard people's frustration with understanding the classification system, so he created LEXI, a graphical system that quickly explains each class.
We're back in PyeongChang (figuratively speaking) for a look at what's been going on with the Paralympic Games--and the hijinks of one of our favorite mascots, Bandabi.
Today's guest is World Para Nordic Skiing Sport Technical Committee Chair Robert Walsh, who explains how Paralympic XC skiing and biathlon work. Plus, there's a potential Olympic Fever knitting project in the works, Paralympic trivia, and another sad mascot story.
The Olympic flame might be extinguished, but PyeongChang's not over yet! It's time for our 2018 Paralympics preview episodes. Today we're talking sled hockey with American three-time medalist Taylor Lipsett. Taylor talks with us about the nuances of the sport, good stickwork and stand-up officials.