If you have PODS – Post-Olympic Depression Syndrome – don’t fear: the Paralympics are almost here. It looks as though this will be first Paralympic games to be a sell out, with an unprecedented demand for tickets.
Unlike the Olympics I actually have more than one ticket (four in fact) for the Paralympics. My Olympic blogs focused on athletics and in particular sprinting and I will have the same focus for the Paralympics.
I have a particular interest in amputee sport and there is always an interest in Oscar Pistorius (a double-amputee sprinter) – the only amputee with a prosthesis to compete at both the Olympics and Paralympics.
If we’re being pedantic we should probably mention George Eyser who won three gold medals at the 1904 Olympics in gymnastics, despite having a wooden leg. So for all you closet biomechanists out there I will probably do piece on the mechanics of amputee sprinting.
Historically, Team GB does very well at the summer Paralympics. Since 1960 we have ranked no worse than 5th in the medal table and have been placed 2nd since Sydney in 2000.
The aim of Team GB is to overhaul the medal total of 105 medals at Beijing - 42 of which were gold. It looks as though Bowie’s Heroes (which was played whenever a British athlete won gold at the Olympics) will be on loop at the Paralympics.