From the Beijing Paralympics, on site -- 9/13/08

At first, it was just a passing thought. A moment later, I made the decision. The unit I teach on the Americans with Disabilities Act, with a focus on workplace accommodation, is one of the more compelling units of my course on Strategic Management of Human Resources. I was going to see the Paralympics!

I asked my Dean and he responded with enthusiastic support. I bought a ticket. A Fulbright colleague in Beijing offered me one of the tickets she had been given to the wheel chair tennis event by her University. A second Fulbright colleague in Beijing kindly invited me to stay with her in her small but cheery apartment. I was off.

The Paralympic athletes were inspiring, perhaps even more so to me, than the athletes who competed in the Olympics. When I complained to myself about my hurting feet, I was reminded that each of the Paralympic athletes had first to overcome a personal disability before even beginning to take up a sport or train for the Paralympics.

Watching the wheel chair tennis matches took my breath away. It's a game I have played and one that my Dad excelled at. I know the challenge of anticipating where the ball will come and getting my feet there before the ball has come and gone. But watching the players seated in wheel chairs meet the ball in a timely fashion was something that I could hardly imagine.

The first match played in center court was between two guys, one from France and one from Chile. Natch, I applauded for the Chilean, throwing in a few Spanish cheers. However, he was clearly outpaced in both speed and strength by the Frenchman, who had taken the gold in a previous Paralympic match. The next match was between two young gals -- a blond from the USA and an African from South Africa. It made for some torn allegiances, to be sure. They were both very good players and had some long, deep in the court volleys. Because they hit the ball with less force than the guys, the ball travelled more slowly; the long volleys and the movement of the chairs positioning and repositioning was really a beautiful site to see. The South African won several games and the first set was long. However, the American player eventually took the set.

We walked around the other tennis courts and watched gals and guys from the States, Canada, China and Germany engaged in matches. Even though I think of myself as reasonably aware, the experience was still an eye-opener. These matches were not the finals so there were no medals awarded.

However, we were also able to get tickets to the Judo event – the finals. We watched several excruciating hours of judo wrestling, men and women, in two weight classes. These athletes were legally blind, category 3 – that is, some of them had some peripheral vision, but that was their maximum visual ability. The judo was hard to watch; several times I was relieved when one of the refs from the sidelines approached the main ref and said something. The matches calmed down a bit, when this happened. ‘Just not my sport! BUT, well worth watching to be able to watch the awarding of the Bronze, the Silver and the Gold medals in each of the categories. Each of the winners was escorted by a sighted person to the medal stand, and the medals were placed around their necks with the same elegance and honor that appears on TV. Only, the athletes had to be helped on and off the stand by their sighted assistant. What an inspiring moment, whatever the sport.

And Beijing ... wow! What a city. Wonderful, but not a city for those who tire easily. I, in my impulsive way, of course, wanted to "do" the city in a long weekend! But my feet rebelled. Simply impossible. We did see the Forbidden City, now the Palace Museum, and Tiananmen Square across the boulevard. I took a bus tour of the city, so saw the location of many other monuments and skyscrapers and some old and some rebuilt “hutongs” (old neighborhoods build down a winding alleyway) as well. It is curious to observe the Chinese apparent preference for razing old buildings and building models of old buildings in their stead, instead of renovating and preserving the old building, themselves. Still, every street, no matter how high the skyscrapers, is lined with trees. It seems that landscaping arts is the one art form that escaped politicization in earlier epochs. On the ground, from the sidewalk, the streets can be quite pleasant.
It was a short trip, but seeing a couple of events at the Paralympics made it very worthwhile. My best to you! Deborah