The video of the Rio Paralympic Games presentation that has had millions of views is entitled “We’re The Superhumans“. Alvin Law, the Canadian drummer who plays in the video, thalidomide survivor, explains that the trailer “is not about disability but about the talent and skills that we all possess.”
It is not rhetorical to say that these athletes, who represent the world of disability in the most important sport event to which to participate, are individuals to be admired as are Bolt and Phelps. They have to be admired in a world that, however, still tends to ignore and segregate people with this kind of diversity. In contrast, the Olympic sport is an example of how it can be achieved the personal empowerment through the development of skills and competences to gain control on own lives and improve the well being.
The Paralympic Games should provide an opportunity to raise awareness that sport and, more generally motor activity might represent situations in which to promote the psychosocial and motor development of persons with disabilities. The concept of empowerment in sport for people with disabilities has at its basis the development of awareness in their skills. The goal is therefore to achieve, through sport experience, a better control of personal resources and the environment in which we live, with the use of skills that are not usually held by persons with disabilities. In the empowerment perspective, the people with disabilities are considered as citizens who have rights and opportunity to choice, rather than dependent individuals, to help, to socialize and to which supply of skills.
It is full of these meanings “The letter to the normals who avoid my brother” by Giacomo Mazzariol, in which he says that “taught me that we all need help” citing the famous phrase of Einstein: “Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, he will pass all its life to believe to be a stupid”.
We look at the Paralympics with this new spirit of discovery of a different way of living the skills and to adapt to situations, whether a ball, water or a running track. Let’s look also to improve ourselves, in the spirit of one who does not retreat thinking that sport and physical activity are not for us, but who wants to look for new ways to increase the well-being through the movement.
Tag Archive for 'Rio'
The Rio Olympics are about to begin. The scourge of doping, which humiliates the sport, is strong and it does not seem to recede despite the disqualifications and the results of the report by Richard McLaren. Despite this, for most of the athletes, the Olympics are an extraordinary event (Italians will present 308). We know the cost and the risks the Olympics impose to those who organized but the myth endures today as it once was. This is the world’s most important sport event, it happens once every four years, for most of the disciplines is necessary to be qualified and in some there is only one athlete per country. It is also a strong link with our past origins, where they join the search for beauty, performance, competitiveness, peace and hero. Who wins a medal at the Olympics goes right to the history of world sport, for this is the race of life. In fact, there are athletes who have not recovered from a defeat at the Olympics, others who have lived the next four years waiting for that day, in which they demonstrated to the world their true value. This is why many dope, because they want to maximize the probability of winning, until to pass the boundary of what is permissible and legal. Winning the Olympics is the fulfillment of a dream, which has had thought dozens of times before. We have not to believe to the athletes when they say: “I did not really think about it, my goal was to do my best.” They thought all right, but they have been so good to dismiss this idea and to focus only on what it took to deliver an outstanding performance. In fact, the victory of a medal at the Olympics only comes from an outstanding performance, excellence in this case is not necessarily in the world record or in unrepeatable quality actions. It comes from having held off the internal pain of the idea of defeat. The athletes in this condition, to deal with this idea, does not exaggerate in the desire to want to do well at all costs, stiffening the body and mind and deteriorating performance, but they do not throw into the fray without even thinking, showing to be impulsive. Instead, they accept the idea of defeat and do exactly what they are prepared to do, in all those long hours of training, neither more nor less, that is, does what he is capable of. Reaching this state of mind is not easy and is the result of a mental work on themselves. This is the challenge that awaits those who will compete in Rio.
