Preparing For 1990 And Beyond

Author : Pierre-Marie Leprêtre
Publisher : Frontiers Media SA
ISBN 13 : 2889451712
Total Pages : 89 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (894 download)

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Download or read book Rio, Tokyo Paralympic Games and beyond: How to Prepare Athletes with Motor Disabilities for Peaking written by Pierre-Marie Leprêtre and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2017-05-25 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1960, the 9th Annual International Stoke Mandeville Games were supported, for the first time, by the Italian Olympic Committee. Taking place six days after the Closing Ceremony of the XVII Olympic Games, the paralympic games for disabled athletes were born. From Roma in 1960 to London in 2012, the Paralympic Games grew in terms of athletes’ number from 400 to 4,237, and now brings together more than 164 nations (Perret, 2015). The word “Paralympic” derives from the Greek preposition “para” (beside or alongside) and the word “Olympic”. Paralympics want to be the parallel Games to the Olympics and illustrate how the two movements exist side-by-side (Paralympics – History of the Movement, 2016). Now taking place after the Olympics Games, the Paralympic Games are the pinnacle of the career of athletes with physical impairments and have become the second largest sport event in the world (Perret, 2015; Paralympics – History of the Movement, 2016; Gold and Gold, 2011). The first statement of the vision of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), i.e. “to create the conditions for athlete empowerment through self-determination” (Paralympics – History of the Movement, 2016; International Paralympic Committee, 2016), shows the importance of the place of the athlete with an impairment at the heart of the Paralympic Movement. The ultimate aim of the IPC is « to enable Paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence and inspire and excite the world. » (International Paralympic Committee, 2016). The performance level of athletes with an impairment improved to a point that, in the present days, sport news and world sport movements focus on the potential advantage of artificial limbs among athletes with amputations and their integration in able-bodied competitions (Burkett, 2010). However, they do not represent the totality of athletes with an impairment at the Paralympic Games. Athletes with other physical impairments (visual deficit, spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy or else) are eligible to compete. These impairments induce typical functional and physiological (e.g., cardiovascular, thermoregulatory) responses to exercise. For example, spinal cord injury (athletes with tetraplegia or paraplegia) causes thermoregulatory impairment (Goosey-Tolfrey et al., 2008) and individuals with cerebral palsy have also demonstrated higher thermal and metabolic strain than matched controls during treadmill walking in the heat (Maltais et al., 2004). Thus, hyperthermia among these athletes with an impairment alters their performance compared to their Olympic counterparts (Bhambhani, 2002). Mechanical performance analysis, the description of physiological responses according to the functional impairment or else the response to training and the relationship between laboratory and field testing responses are different parts of a package introduced here to address the aim of the IPC: to enable Paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence (Paralympics – History of the Movement, 2016; International Paralympic Committee, 2016). Paralympic Games, held almost immediately following the respective Olympics in the same site (Gold and Gold, 2011), also have exposed athletes to different environmental conditions. In the present 20-odd years, three of four Summer Paralympic Games have been or will be organized in the heat with or without significant humidity: Beijing 2008 (Average weather in September for Beijing, China., 2016), Rio de Janeiro 2016 (Average weather in September for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil., 2016) and Tokyo 2020 (Average weather in September for Ota, Japan., 2016). It has been established that the environmental conditions not only influences the level of cognitive and exercise performance capacity in trained able-bodied individuals (Veneroso et al., 2015), but their health status may also be affected. Due to the above-mentioned impairment in thermoregulatory capacity athletes with spinal cord injury or cerebral palsy may be more susceptible to hyperthermia during exercise (Goosey-Tolfrey et al., 2008; Maltais et al., 2004; Bhambhani, 2002). During the Paralympic tournament, these athletes of the qualified nations were and will be exposed to heat and/or humid conditions. The hyperthermia induced by exercise among athletes with an impairment plus the effects of heat on core temperature will make their performance in the hot and warm conditions more challenging. Some studies have addressed strategies to prevent the physiologic and psychological impairments in athletic performance induced by exercise performed in the heat (Goosey-Tolfrey et al., 2008). Other proposed that wheelchair athletes should follow recommendations advocated for able-bodied individuals to minimize their risks of heat stress during competition (Bhambhani, 2002). In the present issue, the authors provide a descriptive approach of performance, and especially the preparation of athletes with a physical impairment to optimize their exercise performance. We argue that the interactions between environmental conditions and typical responses to exercise of athletes with an impairment and the equipment interactions with athlete’s body should be taken into account in the preparation of Paralympic athletes in order to witness the most magnificent sporting display: the Paralympic Games. Finally, the motto of Paralympic movement « Spirit in Motion » is also the philosophy of the present compendium: to present new advances and research findings in the field of applied physiology and biomechanics in exercise, within the context of optimize Paralympic preparation and performance of athletes presented an impairment. References Perret, C. (2015) Elite-adapted wheelchair sports performance: a systematic review. Disabil Rehabil. 27,1-9. Paralympics – History of the Movement. https://www.paralympic.org/the-ipc/history-of-the-movement. Accessed July 8, 2016. Gold, J. R., Gold, M. M. (2011). Olympic Cities: City Agendas, Planning, and the World's Games, 1896 - 2016 (Planning, History and Environment Series), 2nd edition, Routledge, 2011 - 444 pages. International Paralympic Committee. IPC Vision, Motto, Symbol. https://www.paralympic.org/sites/default/files/document/120427151817794_Vision.pdf. Accessed July 8, 2016. Burkett, B. (2010). Technology in Paralympic sport: performance enhancement or essential for performance? Br J Sports Med. 44,215-220. doi: 10.1136/bjsm.2009.067249. Goosey-Tolfrey, V., Swainson, M., Boyd, C., Atkinson, G., Tolfrey, K. (2008). The effectiveness of hand cooling at reducing exercise-induced hyperthermia and improving distance-race performance in wheelchair and able-bodied athletes. J Appl Physiol 105,37-43. doi: 10.1152/japplphysiol.01084.2007. Maltais, D., Wilk, B., Unnithan, V., Bar-Or, O. (2004). Responses of children with cerebral palsy to treadmill walking exercise in the heat. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 36,1674-1681. Bhambhani, Y (2002). Physiology of wheelchair racing in athletes with spinal cord injury. Sports Med. 32,23-51. Average weather in September for Beijing, China. https://weatherspark.com/averages/34097/9/Beijing-China. Accessed July 8, 2016. Average weather in September for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. https://weatherspark.com/averages/33421/9/Rio-de-Janeiro-Brazil. Accessed July 8, 2016. Average weather in September for Ota, Japan. https://weatherspark.com/averages/33260/9/Ota-Tokyo-Japan. Accessed July 8, 2016. Veneroso, C.E., Ramos, G.P., Mendes, T.T., Silami-Garcia, E. (2015). Physical performance and environmental conditions: 2014 World Soccer Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil. Temperature (Austin). 2,439-440. doi: 10.1080/23328940.2015.1106637.