Paralympic Athletes Must Be Superman And Must Have Excellent Equipment.

Amy in Paralympic Games Dancing at the opening ceremony

Amy Purdy, the American skier, has only one request for dancing at the opening ceremony of the Rio Paralympic Games, allowing her to swing freely like a real Brazilian.

At this time, she is 36 years old, has lost her legs for 17 years.

This seems to have some "non essential" requirements eventually realized. On the opening ceremony of Beijing time in September 8th, the dazzling lighting was hit on Purdy, who was wearing 3D printed nude hollows. Dress With a light tiptoes, he launched a wonderful "fight dance" with the orange mechanical arm of KUKA. But if it were not a pair of carbon fiber prostheses like a scimitar under a dress, she would not be able to stand on the stage for even a second.

At this moment, Israel is in 3D print dress. Designer In the eyes of Danny and J. Fowler, the knife dancer, who lost her legs due to meningitis, is as brilliant as the goddess in Botticelli's famous painting "the birth of Venus".

At the opening ceremony of the Rio Paralympic Games in the world, the spark of technology lit up the hope of countless disabled athletes. However, the technology invasion of the Paralympic Games also caused many worries. The latest high-tech achievements can not benefit all athletes. Some people worry that Paralympic Games have become a "elite movement" that ordinary people can hardly match. Some even question the fact that when the boundaries between technology and human body become increasingly blurred, the Paralympics show the ultimate human potential or the power of technological development.

In the Paralympic Games, the pace of technological development has never stopped.

The blade carbon fiber prosthesis supports Purdy's body and jumps freely on the stage of the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games. From afar, people almost forgot to hide a pair of cold, black iron like limbs under her gorgeous dress.

Before that, the 19 year old girl who underwent amputation underwent a Madonna's MV model. She also walked on the stage of the reality show "dancing with the stars". But unlike the athlete's prostheses fitted with cushioning devices and springs at that time, the blade carbon fiber prosthesis is made from 30 to 90 layers of carbon fiber blade, which is thinner than human hair. It is not only light, strong and flexible, but also perfectly combined with the athlete's severed limbs.

Relying on it, Oscar Pistorius, known as "blade fighter," stands out in the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games, becoming the world record holder for the disabled 100 meter, 200 meter and 400 meter sprint. This year's Rio Paralympic Games, the British Triathlon player Andy Lewis and sprinter Julie Rogers once again put on a knife run up prosthesis. The study found that the strength of this prosthesis is very close to that of natural human tendons, running 25% less energy than that of healthy athletes. The maximum speed is 11% faster, and the muscles used are much less.

Gu Xin, an analyst at Yu Tang sports consulting company, told reporters that the application of technology in the field of sports can be traced back to the source of the Olympic history. The disabled athletes have some defects in physiology. They will rely more on scientific and technological equipment during training, especially the winter Paralympic Games closely related to equipment and equipment. Since the first Paralympic Games in 1948, the development of technology in Paralympic Games has never stopped.

Today, the weight of wheelchair has dropped from 23 kg to two kg, and the degree of toughness has not been reduced. It can save 0.14 seconds for moving 20 meters. Skiers will be able to direct the direction of the sled through the radio signals of the brain if they only wear headphones that read the mind. The "glove glove" of the athletes' movements corrected by the sensors can enable ordinary people to swim like Phelps and wave the tennis racket like Murray.

Less than 24 hours later, 3D printed polycarbonate leg prosthesis can be completed, and skin, tendons, ligaments, cartilage and all kinds of cells are spewing out of the printer. The polycarbonate prosthetic legs are lighter and more air compatible than previous ones, and are unique in "private custom".

Athletes must be superman. They must have excellent equipment.

Once, for Purdy, such "private ordering" seemed remote.

When she met a wheelchair disabled person before illness, Pudi secretly thought that if this happened to her, she would "push herself down the cliff in a wheelchair". But when the tragedy really came, she could only congratulate herself on the fact that she was still alive, and was enveloped in endless despair.

At that time, the girl who had the taste of independence was a zealot skier, full of the dream of traveling around the world. But before life started, it showed its hideous side. When the virus meningitis was sent to the hospital, she had only 2% chance to survive. Although barely recovered, she lost her spleen, kidneys and two legs.

After a few weeks' discharge, Pudi saw her new leg for the first time, and the young girl immediately burst into tears. Bulky metal blocks and yellow rubber feet are fixed together by pipes. Rubber lines protruding from toes to ankles, like ugly channels, are painful to stand up and act very slowly.

"My goals and passions have been shattered, leaving only my bare feet." She wrote in her diary.

7 months later, Pudi returned to snow mountain, but found that his knees and ankle could not bend as they used to. She fell heavily on the slide, and the man was shot into the air. The prosthesis was firmly stuck to the skis and slid down the hill.

In order to find the right foot, she worked hard for a year and assembled the parts randomly with her prosthetic manufacturer. After transplanted the kidney donated by his father, Pudi came to Colorado to become the first athlete in the world to ride the snow field on his prosthesis. In 2005, she and her boyfriend Daniel Gail set up a non-profit organization to provide training for disabled skiers and rock climbers to help them return to the arena.

In most cases, the latest hi-tech can only benefit some of the top athletes, and few have noticed the shadow behind their success and glory. More ordinary disabled people had to struggle in the same pain and despair as Purdy did.

Opposite to the dining hall outside the London Olympic Village in 2012, a pile of broken feet lay on the ground, and occasionally one or two "long legs" came out. These prosthetic limbs, wheelchair tyres, steel rings and splint are all handicapped athletes from all over the world who participate in Paralympic Games.

In high-intensity games, functional legs may be torn or ligamentous, and the knee and ankle joints of the prosthesis may be distorted or even broken. In every Paralympic Games, the German Ottobock prosthetic orthosis company will send dozens of experts to repair prosthetics free of charge for athletes.

For Donna Fisher, a 41 year old Dublin prosthetic technician, the most challenging project is to repair the prosthetic limbs and wheelchairs of the athletes in developing countries. The equipment they use is often worn out and worn very hard.

In the corner of the workshop, a brown leg is waiting to be repaired. Its owner is a Haiti athlete, because he is often too painful to wear a prosthesis. He has to act on crutches regularly. A Nigeria weightlifter's leg is made up of animal skins, metal pipes and strings. The wheelchair of Egyptian athletes "looks like it was made in the Vitoria era".

As the British say, when people talk about how technology can make the Paralympic Games wonderful, the essence of the problem is avoided. Is the Paralympic Games the stage of pursuing the limit of human beings or the arena of scientific and technological level? Does technology give unfair advantages to some people?

In fact, even for athletes who stand at the top of Pyramid, high-tech brings more than fame, money and status to win, honor and roll, but also endless troubles and disputes.

At the London Paralympic Games in 2012, after losing to the "upstart" Brazil rival Alan Oliveira on the 200 meter track, the famous South African "blade fighter" pestrees was furious to shuddling his opponent "a lot more than a year ago". Just 8 years ago, at the Paralympic Games in Athens, he increased his prosthesis by two or three inches, leaving his helpless opponent behind him.

Compared with drug stimulants, the "high tech doping" seems to be even more hopeless. Behind every athlete is the comprehensive competition of invisible forces such as national financial resources, scientific research ability and innovative ability. Expensive high-tech equipment has created an insurmountable gap for ordinary people who lack resources.

The poll results of ComRes, a British research institution, show that ordinary people's views on Paralympics are gradually changing from "I can try" to "I can't do it" because "athletes must be superhuman beings and must have excellent equipment".

When Pistor Reiss and Oliveira argued over the length of carbon fiber prostheses, many poor countries also used self-made prostheses and scraps of metal scraps. The cost of high-tech equipment like mechanical war police is tens of thousands of dollars, which is too expensive.

"This is the darkest time." Fisher could not help feeling, "they are gifted, but very vulnerable."

Even if you buy Bicycles like Armstrong, you won't win the tour de France.

After wearing the $70 thousand smart bionic leg C-legs for the first time, Cameron Leslie, the gold medal winner of the Paralympic Games swimming, excitedly spent hours in the city of Berlin and waking up for second days. This is unthinkable in the past.

"I like to call it Cameron's leg." The 26 year old New Zealand boy said with a smile. He was born with short limbs, legs only above knee, left arm without forearm, and right hand with only one thumb. This high-tech treasure sponsored by public funds is his secret weapon to preserve his own world record in Rio Olympic Games.

Although the Paralympics swimming competition prohibits the use of prosthetic limbs in the water, this bionic leg is of little help to Leslie. The sensor installed inside the prosthesis can be adjusted at any time to adapt to the road condition. The shock absorber allows users not to feel tired when they are dressed, and saves valuable physical strength for training. What's more, the knee of the new prosthesis can bend and support the weight. It is convenient for Leslie to carry out difficult training exercises, strengthen the core muscles of the buttocks and legs, and improve his balance and strength in the water.

By contrast, Jesse Reynolds, who traveled with him in Berlin, was not so lucky. Because of the ordinary mechanical prosthesis, the 19 year old American lad can not walk a few steps, and he will be exhausted and aching. His biggest wish is to be supported by a pair of C-legs bionic legs, but this dream is still far away.

Facing the increasingly white hot technology competition, the Paralympic Committee stipulates that all equipment manufacturers must consider the cost and availability in a wider range during the Paralympic Games, and ensure that the beneficiaries of technological development are not just elite athletes.

At present, a lighter, more agile carbon fiber wheelchair has been commercially available, though it sells for up to 2000 pounds. Perhaps one day in the future, it will break away from the "elite" appearance of high above, and bring hope to ordinary disabled people.

However, at the age of 29, Heinrich Popov, a German riding athlete, said that equipment was only an important factor affecting the competition. Everyone is talking about the advantages brought by technology, but talent is more important. Even if you buy Bicycles like Armstrong, you won't win the tour de France.

It is not impossible for athletes without high-tech halo to attack. Nigeria athletes, who have polio, have won 6 gold medals in the weightlifting program of the Paralympic Games relying on backward equipment, and have created several world records.

"If we compare science and technology to weapons and equipment in modern warfare, athletes are soldiers on the battlefield. If we want to win, there is no shortage of advanced weaponry and trained soldiers." Gu Xin told reporters, "Paralympic Games not only need high tech assistance, but also athletes themselves continue to train and struggle."

In his view, technology is always an auxiliary means to help athletes participate in sports more easily and realize their Olympic dream. Although high technology has led to a higher threshold for people with disabilities, technology is always complementary. "Man is a purpose, not a means". The core of this spirit will not change.

Out of the abyss of despair, Pudi set three goals for himself. The first thing is "I will never feel sorry for myself, because I am not a victim."

She knows that the disabled are naturally vulnerable and that they have a pair of comfortable fitting prostheses, which is enough to be thankful.