'Universal Sports' is doing an Amazing job with the 'ParaOlympics'

I am very impressed with Universal Sport's coverage of the ParaOlympics both on the net and TV - Must see, must read: [Link]

Check out this article abut 2008 South African Olympian and ParaOlympain, Natalie Du Toit: "...The South African, who won five golds and a silver in the Athens Paralympics, finished in 1 minute, 6.74 seconds — a world record for her disability class.

A swimmer with Olympic promise, Du Toit lost her left leg above the knee in a 2001 motorcycle crash. She qualified for the Beijing Olympics in the 10-kilometer swim, a race in which her cap came off as she brushed the buoy on the first turn. Du Toit struggled the rest of the way with hair in her eyes, stopping at times to fix the cap...." [Link]

Sheesh! My personal best in the 100LCM free barely beats her 100LCM butterfly time and she is missing a leg! Some amazingly inspired performances here. Please watch or read up on ParaOlympics. By doing so acknowledges such sublime accomplishments and may perhaps create more venues for the disabled.

Anger, anxiety and loathing on the South African Olympic swim team

If Roland Schoeman was an Australian, French, or an American citizen, he would be a swimming millionaire. Instead he is is a middle class, South African, swimmer who has had to deal with extraordinary adversity by way of little economic support, threats and insults among other hardships from his very own sports governing body.

But get this: Some of his team members have gone through worse.

Snippets from Sport 24 website: "... Beijing - South African sporting authorities left Natalie du Toit badly in the lurch only hours before her historic Olympic debut.[Open water swimmer missing a leg.]

They among others allegedly:

• Refused to find her accommodation near her competition venue

• Screamed at her and her coach when they asked for the help of a translator of the South African Sport Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC)

• Forced her to wear a sponsor's shoes with uncomfortable heels even though she couldn't walk with them due to her disability

These revelations come amid serious criticism of the poor performance by SA athletes in Beijing. [...]

"... Ryk Neethling told how he had to break up a fight between the SA swimming captain Gerhard Zandberg and Roland Schoeman about comments that Zandberg had made. After Neethling tried to make peace, he feared that Swimming SA's head coach Dirk Lange would hit him. ..." [Link]

A paralympian swam an amazing 1500!

From Swim News: "... The most heartening victory came from Natalie du Toit, who set a Games record of 17:09.05 over 1,500m freestyle. That makes the paralympian faster than the abled-bodied world record that stood before the advent of a young Australian called Shane Gould. An amazing effort. Silver went to Maroua Mathlouthi, of Tunisia and sibling of the men's medley winner, in 17:22.83, and bronze to South Africa's Dominique Dryding in 17:31.51. ..." [Link]

I may swim a 1500m free in Mission Viejo quite soon and I am hoping my time is in the low 20's. From her website:

"...Having competed at the Kuala Lumpur Games in 1998 as an able bodied athlete at the age of 14, she lost her leg in a motorcycle accident in 2001. Despite this setback, she was determined to compete at the Manchester Games both as an able bodied and disabled competitor just to prove it could be done. She achieved her goal, swimming into a creditable eighth place in the able bodied 800m Freestyle, and winning gold in the 50 and 100m Elite Athletes with a Disability (EAD) events." [Link]

You know what? I love motor cycles, I use to race them at Indian Dunes and I want to get a Ducati someday to race at Riverside but off the track or off the raceway motorcycles are nothing short of being "donor cycles."

I learned that word from a nurse who, while working in an ER, shouted, "where are his legs, I need his legs."

Then came the reply, "they are in the bucket!" The room went quiet,

"A bucket of legs? Where is the bucket of legs?"

"They are on their way; they are in the back of the truck that hit him."