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.