Fun Fact: This year the Paralympic Games will be held in Rio de Janeiro from 7-18 September. Athletes from 176 different countries will be competing at the games this year!
Approximately one month after the Olympic Games finish, there is a second Olympic competition. This competition is specifically for athletes who have physical disabilities. It is called the Paralympics. The first official Paralympic Games were held in Rome, Italy in 1960.
Activity 1: At the first ever Paralympic Games in Rome, the athletes competed in eight sports. Cycling was one of them. For the cycling event, two people compete together as a team – one of the people has a disability and the other does not. Here is a picture of a para-cycling team from New Zealand:
At the moment the most famous para-cycling team in New Zealand is comprised of two female athletes – Emma Foy and Laura Thompson. Emma is blind but Laura is not. Together they work as an amazing team. Imagine that you were asked to compete in a tandem cycling event and you had to choose one person to compete with. Who would it be? On your blog, tell us who you would compete with and why. If it was me, I would choose my son, Aronui because he’s pretty fast and very funny. He would make me laugh as we biked along and would be very supportive and encouraging! I know that I could trust him to be a good teammate. Who would you choose?
If I had to choose someone to para-cycle with me I would choose my older brother Noel because he is very very fast and he is supportive in everything I do with him.I would choose him because he is a very good driver,he started driving when he was 14 so he is like a pro.
Hi Fiapo! It sounds like you have made a really good choice in selecting your brother, Noel. You will need someone to compete with you who is fast and able to steer the bike. You will also want someone with whom you can communicate well. It can get pretty tricky to share a bicycle but I am confident that you and Noel could handle it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this great post, Fiapo, and for posting so many great comments on other student's sites. I have really enjoyed reading them and I know that your classmates and school peers will love them as well!
Keep up the great work, Fiapo :)
Cheers, Rachel