superhuman

[julesjones]

Channel 4 have been advertising their Paralympic coverage with the tagline Superhuman, making the point that the Paralympic athletes may be that little bit slower and less powerful than the Olympic athletes, but they're still faster than almost all of the people watching them.

I'm disabled within the meaning of the Act (yes, that's a technical term), but what that means for me is that I need to manage my environment and my medication to lead a normal life. Various bits of me don't work as well as they might, but they're all present and functional. So it's pretty humbling to come home from the swim session I was doing as physiotherapy, and watch a swimmer with no arms do 50 metres backstroke in half the time it took me to do it. I'm unfit and wasn't going full throttle, but I doubt I could match her even with training.

There is some stunningly good sport on Channel 4 this week, with world class athletes. Every bit as much as the Olympics, this is about exploring the extremes of performance the human body can reach.

Comments

[tychist.livejournal.com]

Someone pointed out that Richard Whitehead's time in the 200metres yesterday was faster than Eric Liddle's (of Chariots of Fire fame).
The wheelchair basketball is a lot of fun too.

[julesjones]

I was mesmerised by the wheelchair rugby last time round, although sadly I've failed to catch any of it this time. I should try to find it on 4oD.