The 2012 Paralympics, just finished, were truly inspiring and enlightening as well as being exciting to watch. I particularly loved those speed wheelchair events with their man and machine testosterone fueled power. It was amazing to see in the races but also in the massively aggressive team games – the rugby was much more exciting to watch than the original game without machines.
Amazing too was watching the blindfold running and all those events that I have so often failed at raced triumphantly by people without all their limbs. Both sets of games, the Olympics and Paralympics celebrated the human body pushing itself to its limits. Fantastic to witness and humbling whenever I remember not going to the gym because I’d got a headache.
I have renewed respect though for all the masters of elite sports and realize that they are, whatever their disabilities, people with talents I just don’t possess. Congratulations to all of them for opening our minds.