Rio 2016 Paralympic Games
Discussion
lufbramatt said:
Fantastic race but some really dodgy reporting there, the T13 winning time was about 23 seconds off overall world record pace. Also the 1500m at the Olympics was a very slow tactical race so the time is kind of irrelevant (winning time 3:50, I was an ok middle distance runner in my late teens and did a 3:54, but I was nowhere near international standard). Not to take anything away from the performance of the Paralympians, but the way they have reported it there is very misleading.
Just been doing some reading about the visual impairment classifications. I wear a pretty hefty prescription for short sightedness, and without my glasses I'd be eligible to run in the T13 classification (obviously my sight can be corrected so I can't) but no wonder I used to get so upset when teacher at school made me play rugby etc. with no glasses on. I effectively had the vision of someone that would be legally blind.
Suspect you've read up more than me, but that sounds like you would be classifiable, if you wanted. Just been doing some reading about the visual impairment classifications. I wear a pretty hefty prescription for short sightedness, and without my glasses I'd be eligible to run in the T13 classification (obviously my sight can be corrected so I can't) but no wonder I used to get so upset when teacher at school made me play rugby etc. with no glasses on. I effectively had the vision of someone that would be legally blind.
Edited by lufbramatt on Tuesday 13th September 11:56
Basing that mostly on this site: http://www.britishblindsport.org.uk/classification...
FlyingMeeces said:
Suspect you've read up more than me, but that sounds like you would be classifiable, if you wanted.
Basing that mostly on this site: http://www.britishblindsport.org.uk/classification...
My sight, thankfully, can be corrected to better than 20/20 with glasses so wouldn't be a huge amount of point, I think the classifications are for people whose "best corrected" sight is still worse than 6/60 (or 20/200). With athletics there are no issues in wearing glasses, in Rugby there is a safety issue which is fair enough but I still used to hate it!Basing that mostly on this site: http://www.britishblindsport.org.uk/classification...
Article on the bike I've been working on from about 50mins - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07v0h78
That's bloody brilliant. 
Randy Winkman said:
BBC say it was on a mountainous section of course but not the one where Annemiek van Vleuten of the Netherlands crashed and sustained concussion during the Olympics.
Hearing this awful news did make me wonder how she was doing, she also fractured about three vertebrae on top of her concussion and various other injuries as well.Trabi601 said:
FlyingMeeces said:
Sarah Storey absolutely obliterated that. Outstanding.
I remain to be convinced that she should be competing. She is proof that, in many sports and categories at the paralympics, it's a competition to find the least disabled competitor.But from what I see of her, I don't like her. She seems way too cocky for my liking. I know successful sports people can be like that. When she does the Womens Tour shes always languishing around the back getting dropped, so her legs aren't that strong compared to other non Olympic riders.
But it was the hour atempt that sealed her in my mind. On a track that's one of the very best, with a bike that's one of the very best. She was unable to beat a record set on a old fashioned bike 13 years previously! She was rolling around on the floor "in agony" Which made me wonder just how hard she'd trained for this event. Especially given every rider from Voigt to Wiggins has been able to walk (if a little gingerly) afterwards.
I just got the feeling she massively underestimated the task and simply assumed she'd break it easily. "Drunk her own Kool Aid" to coin a phrase
Anyway, back OT
It strikes me that some countries put more emphasis on Paralympics than others. Some of the races the gaps between first and last are enormous. And some of the athletes are carrying more than a kg or 2 of excess weight!
I did comment to my wife that winning a 15 minute race by more than 3 minutes kind of takes the mickey and suggests that the categorisations are just a little bit wrong!
(Contrast this to the men's handcycle race, where all 3 medallists were awarded the same time! - was gutted for Zanardi, as he's a real gentleman - he did some work for us at Goodwood and I had the honour of being at the table next to him for breakfast, so had a short chat with him)
(Contrast this to the men's handcycle race, where all 3 medallists were awarded the same time! - was gutted for Zanardi, as he's a real gentleman - he did some work for us at Goodwood and I had the honour of being at the table next to him for breakfast, so had a short chat with him)
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