MouthLondon - London Student & Youth Magazine

Paralympics: Sportifying Wheelchairs

Posted on Aug 14th, 2012 by Stephen Bassett | Editor · 1 comment so far · Tags: 2012, London, Paralympics, Sport

Wheelchairs are superbly designed for at-home use and for moving in and around crowds; in fact many wheelchairs users have mastered many every day obstacles, which are essential to everyone else, to the point where they don’t even notice them any more. It’s the slim, svelte construction of the modern wheelchair that makes it so natural and unnoticed today: it just blends in.

These positives, however, are not great when it comes to playing sport in a wheelchair, and, with the current Paralympics coming fast, wheelchair design in sport has become more and more important. There have been several advertisements on Channel 4, recently, displaying the physicality of Paralympic sport, noticeably in basketball, with Paralympians slamming into each other at close range speeds unreachable by those on two legs. The speed, combined with an ultra-slippery sports floor, make the balance of sports wheelchairs or Basketball-Wheelchairs, as they’re better known, of the utmost importance.

As the video below by wheelchair maker ottobock proves, there is a huge amount of research and development that goes into making the perfect Paralympian wheelchair. Unlike the best trainer by Adidas or Nike, with its “most comfortable air cushion ever”, ottobock are truly providing sportsmen and women with the tools that will enhance their performance and will help make the Paralympic games a treat to watch.

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I have worked consistently in journalism for the past six years. More than half of that at MouthLondon. I hope you enjoy reading my articles and add yours soon.

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