Saturday, March 8, 2014

Day 1 of the Paralympics

Day 1 of the Paralympics' sports included sledge hockey, the biathalon, downhill and cross country skiing.  I liked the skiing the best, mostly because it also involves blind  (both legally blind and completely blind) people competing. They have guides that help them on the course. The guide and racer communicate via radio and they talk to each other through microphones on their helmets. I think it must take a lot of faith from both guider and athlete that the other will guide them safely down the hill. I read an article about it (you can read it here ) which said that guides give the skiers short commands so they can safely compete. As much as I support Team USA,(and liked the hockey game they played against Italy and won!) today I'd like to highlight the story of a British woman  named  Jade Etherington who is visually impaired and got 3rd place in the women's  downhill skiing competition. She's the first British woman to win a Paralympic medal in that sport which I think is pretty cool!  It shows me that there are no  limits to what  people can do. I'm glad people don't let blindness  (or anything else for that matter,) stop them and because they don't let  anything stop them, they go on to win medals! You can read more about Jade Etherington here.

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