I kept Peacock for one more month to get the Paralympics, which started more or less today.
A lot less events, which is a shame, but what is there is still really good. I happily watched the US beat Canada in sled hockey today.
Anyone else planning to watch?
There are only six sports listed:
Alpine Skiing (slalom, giant slalom, Super-G, and a Super-G/slalom combined)
Biathlon
Cross-Country Skiing
Sled Hockey (just a men’s tournament, although it is open to women as well)
Snowboarding (snowcross and “banked slalom”)
Wheelchair Curling (just mixed doubles)
I saw a bit of biathlon today, just the very end of the women’s sprint. It didn’t look like they had rifles. Do paralympic biathletes not take their rifles with them around the course?
It’s mixed, but not mixed doubles. Each team is two men and two women. I think games are only 8 ends long, and there’s no sweeping.
From these pictures, I would guess that there’s no way to carry the rifles without interfering with the skiing and/or transitioning to and from the firing position.
And in case you’re wondering, visually impaired biathletes use a laser rifle that aims by sound.
Looks like there’d be room to carry them on the back of the chair, or just sling them on their backs the way standing biathletes do.
I hope I’ll have a chance to watch some before the Games are over. I always notice the almost complete lack of left-handers among standing biathletes; I’m curious if that applies to paralympic biathletes as well.
I couldn’t find any explanation.
Though it might be the rifles are too long to be slung vertically for the chair skiers and slinging at an angle would interfere with the skiing motion. Also, various upper body impairments could hinder slinging and unslinging the rifle. It would also lessen the number of finer and finer sub-classifications of disability.
It’s probably something like that. I always thought that added something to biathlon, though; not only do you have to ski and shoot, you have to carry the rifle the whole way. I imagine they want them as light as possible.
The original winter biathlon used full-size, full-power military rifles and was actually part of military training.
Naturally, as it became more sport, it was streamlined for higher performance.
I’m enjoying watching the downhill and snowboarding and have an observation. They are slower and less skilled than Olympians, but I think it is because:
Disabilities. Duh.
They do not practice and train nearly as long and hard as Olympians, as there are pro tours for most of those events.
There are a LOT less paralympic athletes out there, so the talent pool is smaller.
It’s very entertaining, though. I’m glad Peacock is carrying it.
As near as I can tell, NBC is getting into the spirit of the event by hiring visually-impaired commentators for the snowboardcross.
No joke, the closing ceremonies of the Paralympics were incredible. Kind of stunning. Beautiful.