Bewildering achievement

Like so many that have the capability, when the olympic calendar indicates either a summer or winter Olympics is happening, I make time in my day to watch because I'm not in the least bit shy about admitting my appreciation for the talent, training, and dedication these athletes demonstrate. As a former high level athlete myself, and a coach of so many I was blessed to interact with as they honed their own skills and talents, I shake my head in awe at what is considered "normal" in today's international competitions.

I was having a conversation with a friend a month ago, right around when the winter able-bodied Olympics were beginning, and the comment was offered, "What get's me is that in the summer Olympics, we celebrate how strong, how fast, or how skilled the athletes are, but the the winter Olympics it seems we celebrate how crazy they are, as we marvel at whether or not they'll survive." 

Think about what you know right now about the differences between the two seasonal competitions. The summer games focus on running, swimming, jumping, or throwing the fastest, furthest, or highest, but in contrast, the winter games are about flying through the air doing the most tricks ... or flying down a mountain the fastest ... or staying on the ice or snow surface in some razor-sharp blades at 120 kph. Even cross country skiing is spiced up by throwing in rifles?

Here's an even more alarming thought ...

Survive flying down a mountain at 100 kph following your guide because you're visually impaired! We test people's eyesight to allow them to drive on our nation's roads safely, then award some young lady or gentleman a big hunk o' gold for taking the greatest risk when they strap some slippery boards to their feet and point as straight as possible down a mountain. Better still, we create a category for those with an impaired or missing leg, where they can sit down, on ONE ski, and do the same thing! 

Want to have an OMG moment? Watch the Paralympics before they finish.

Being a 100% red 'n white Canuck, I have to include sledge hockey, the Paralympic version of our nation's passion. Push aside the fact that these athletes are balancing on a single blade while sitting in a metal gurney, how about the fact that they propel down the ice surface, twisting and turning, powered by only their arms as they use specially designed mini sticks with picks on the nub to provide traction as they push? Ever played mini sticks? Think about how strong your arms and wrists have to be to shoot the puck the way they do! 

Ever heard of the biathlon? That's where you cross country ski so fast and hard that you collapse in a heap as you cross the finish line. Some of these wonders of humanhood throw in the task of target shooting in the middle of a race, forcing themselves to lie on their belly, hold their breath as they will their heart from hammering in their chest, and attempt to hit a 45 mm target from 50 m five times in a row, trying to avoid adding penalty distance to the length they race. That's apparently not challenging enough for some, so in the Paralympics they have a race for visually impaired athletes ... they give guns to people who struggle to see? These incredible athletes use sound to target the coin-sized target! Some don't have arms so they can't use poles or hold the gun in their lack of hands, yet shoot the rifle they do, rarely missing!

"Hey, wait a minute Steve!" you might yell.

How are all of those races fair since some athletes are way more impaired than others!

Enter another Paralympic modification. The racers are given a percentage of impairment that is used to calculate a timing factor that is used to arrive at their final clocking. A more abled racer is factor 99 or 100%, while someone missing a limb, or has a paralyzed limb, might have a factor 82% meaning that their time is 82% of their finish time of X minutes and seconds. Some of these super heroes require outrigger poles to stay upright because they only have one leg. Imaging yourself competing in the downhill, going 90 or 100 kph on three skis ... one on a foot and two in your hands? How about doing so through 100 poles in a winding weaving slalom course?

So many of us marvel at the Usain Bolts of the world, the fact he can cover 100 m in the mind boggling world record of 9.59 seconds because we've all run flat out at some point in our lives so we can at the very least have a partial understanding of his incredible ability. I can't speak for you, but I cannot identify with someone who can sit in some space-age contraption mounted to a single ski, complete with shock absorbers, then twist and turn down a mountain as fast as possible without wiping out. There were a few wipeouts in the "sit ski" races I watched and they were what we used to call "Yard Sales" when I ski raced ... there were bits and pieces of equipment scattered all over the hill. 

Who looks at a race like that and says, "Sign me up"?

What about curling? If you've ever actually tried it, on ice, you have to appreciate what they can make those polished chunks of granite do, but think about how difficult it is to do so from a wheelchair, and instead of using your hands, you use a modified Shuffleboard pole. I saw the Canadian Skip perform a perfect double takeout, squeezing through two guards barely larger that the diameter of the rock, and take out 2 opponent rocks with out touching his own 4. 

Think I'm exaggerating? Look up the highlight ... incredible!

I think that we all should give our Olympians a tip of the hat, both able bodied and disabled, because they deserve our respect, applause, admiration, and support. 

At least, that's my opinion.

Thanks for reading!