Day 3

Warming up

Had to get y early as the women were first on the court for a WCBB game against Argentina.Argentina are not strong so we knew it would be a win. Do you play nice or do you blow them away? There is a middle ground. You don't want to slam them with full court press and aggressively challenge every possessions....like China did the other day against Algeria and beating them 88-16. That was a little rude. The issue is you need that game to try varieties of offences and use it to get better at fundamentals. You know GB, Germany, Netherland and USA won't give you anything easy so try things now. It is inevitable that the score will be lopsided but it's a reality of the situation Argentina is in with the number of spots for teams to qualify and be here for the Paralympics. Why is Australia, a much stronger team, not here? Because of rules regarding geographical representations based on past performances and World Championship rankings. Since Australia didn't have a good tournament at the last Worlds in 2014, then the area called Oceania comprising Japan, China and Australia got only one spot and China got in. This is also why Algeria is in with a very weak team.

Family and friends cheering the women to victory 

Anyway, they tried things and won. They also managed to get every Canadian player to be on the score sheet with Melanie Hawtin getting in with only a few minutes to go. The players were aware of that possibility so as Mel and Jamey Jewells were racing up on a fast break, Jamey had the ball, veered right and took the defender with her and handed the ball to Melanie who got it in. A very nice sportsmanship gesture.

Game 2 is in the books

So now they face Germany tomorrow morning. It will be tense. Check it out with your morning coffee at www.cbcsports.ca/paralympic with live streaming.

Many people likely notice,  and some ask, why do I constantly wear clothing and t-shirts with Canada written on it. Well if you figure out how many Games I have been part of and the clothing package we receive and have to wear then you would correctly assume that I own A LOT of clothes with Canada written on it.
Another question is "where do you stay?" Many think I'm in a hotel. I stay within the Paralympic Village, with all other Canadians on our team. Tiny rooms but I am not there much.

Here's a picture of my room and the package I received. I didn't include the opening ceremony pants / shirt / jacket...as I'll likely not wear them again. There is a very nice rain jacket this year as well but it's downstairs in my backpack.

My fancy bed for 3 weeks

All the clothes I get ...or have to wear for the same 3 weeks. Luckily we have 1 day turn around for laundry

Oh, and by the way: I broke down. I decided to go for the easy meal for lunch and not walk all the way to the dining hall as our good friend Ronald has his place of Good Eats closer at the Village Plaza. Salad, coffee (of course) and a yogurt with granola. No Big Macs or fries.

GOLD !

What a difference a round, heavy shiny object makes to elevate 350 people's morale.
Last night the men's basketball team were solidly defeated by Spain. Everyone went to bed in a glum state. Tonight, after the evening's haul, there's energy in the Red and White zone.

You will see different medal counts here compared to Olympic games. The main reason is the classification system for equal, or as close as possible, sports competition. Every sport is different. Basketball classifies regarding a player's physical and functional ability and they get a score from 1.0 to 4.5. The total score of the 5 players on the court can not be above 14. It provides various line ups and player selection with different skills. The coach has to be aware of this the whole time as a mistake becomes a technical foul. In sports like swimming, it gets real interesting. There are 10 physical classes (S1-S10), 3 visual classes (S11-S13) and a new cognitive class (S14). SO at the Olympics, there is one "50m, men freestyle" event with 3 medals to be won. At the Paralympics, there could be a "50m freestyle S1...S2...S3...S4..." (you get the picture?) event with 3 medals each. So if all classifications are full and have enough competitors you could hand out 42 medals for "50m men freestyle" event. Fortunately, there are many classes where there are not enough competitors internationally to hold that event and not all of them are held. You could be an elite swimmer, classed an S4 and not be able to compete because there are not enough people in that class. That's good in a way because the full pool schedule would never end. Remember there are butterfly, backstroke, medleys, 100m,....events in multiple classes with male and female division. This is why, as I write this at the end of day 2, China leads the medal count with 49!. There's been a lot of swimming, shooting, track cycling and track and field medals today. China is strong in many of those.

Getting back to medals!

This morning we had 3 cyclists in 3 different classes, C1,2 and 3, competing on the track in the 3000m individual pursuit. The 4 best times would advance and compete for medals early in the evening. Basically, the 2 best times go for gold/silver and the 3rd and 4th race for bronze. Ross Wilson in the C1 and Tristan Chernove in the C2 finished with the second time so in the evening, they were getting either gold or silver. Michael Sametz, a 20 year old rider classed C3 came up with a great ride and was going for bronze in the evening.

This Spanish rider rides with only his right leg and has only his right arm to handle the bike. These games have endless athletes who impress me and should impress everyone

Ross clocking in the second best time in his group

Tristan coming in second in qualifying

Ross was facing a tough match against a Chinese athlete who is not only the World Champion in this discipline but broke his own world record in qualifying! His evening ride would see the Chinese rider lap him and effectively the race is stopped with an instant win. Tristan had a tight race but his last laps were slowing down with his opponent keeping up the pace so although he started ahead in pacing, he won silver. Michael did not succeed and lost the race for bronze.

Then we had Brent Lakatos blow by everyone on his way to a Gold medal in the 100m T53 classification.

Aurélie Rivard, a swimmer in the S10 class, came up with a world record in the S10 women 100m freestyle! She beat Brent become Canada's first gold medal. She isn't sone and we are expecting a lot more!

By the way, explaining all the different classifications of cycling and track and field is too long, dry  and complex for this blog.You can find all of that at https://www.paralympic.org/classification-of-sports.

I then ran to cover the men's goalball team. Goalball is a sport for visually impaired athletes. Here are the brief notes to explain the sport. 2 teams of 3 players face each other on a court about the size of a volleyball court. they defend large nets which are as wide as the court is. They need to have a documented visual impairment, cover their eyes with taped patches and wear blackout goggles. This makes sure they are completely in the dark. The court has raised lines so they know where they are. The ball is bigger than a basketball and made of heavier rubber. It has a tiny bell in it. When it is launched , they listen to the sound of the ball and the bell to figure out where it goes and launch themselves horizontally to stop it. Then they laugh it back. The whole arena or venue has to be quit for the players to hear the ball/bell. The only venue where sports are not "cheered" unless there's a goal.
It is certainly not intuitive and not as easy as it looks. The men played Brazil....they lost. The crowd was hard to quiet down. They are an emotional people the Cariocas!

All he above pics are my attempt at sports photography. A hobby I practice at these games. Every year I feel technology is running away from me as the pros have fancier equipment, better and bigger lenses, much better positions and great after production on photoshop. I shoot what you see. I'm proud of my pics but when I stand beside the pros and see what pops up on the website the next day, I bow my head.
Please, please, please go to https://www.facebook.com/CDNParalympics/photos_stream and see some great pics of our Canadian athletes!

Here are a few:

Add caption

Ross Wilson, from Jean Baptiste Benavent

Brent  Lakatos, from Matthew Murhaghan

Tristan Chernove form Jean Baptiste Benavent

Let the Games begin!!

Yes, it has begun.
The sad part is the Paralympics do not get the same attention as the Olympics. The energy, the passion of sport and the competitiveness is not different yet many people at home still ask me "Why are you going to Rio" Aren't the Games over?". No they are not....they are just beginning.

Opening ceremonies took place last night and it sounds like they were a blast. Since we are marching as delegations behind our flag bearer, David Eng, we have to get organized early and get all positioned outside the stadium. There's no television feed as we are all sitting in Portuguese alphabetical order to enter the stadium. Since the parade of athletes starts around 6:30 , we left the Village at 2!. 1 hour bus ride to an area across the street from the stadium then everybody walks across a bridge then to our designated area and.....we wait.

First we had to get into our Opening Ceremony outfit. There's a big love/hate relationship with this outfit. I suspect not many people will wear it when at home. It does look kinda cool as a group but individually, not very practical.

Looking pretty good

Me and my friends

My other friends. The wheelchair basketball team

We were pretty hot with the temperature hitting high twenties and humid. The jackets didn't breathe very well. After much fanfare, we hit the buses and off to the stadium we went. The women WCBB team didn't go as they had their first game at 9:30 the next morning, or today. Since transport to the gym is at 7:40, team breakfast was at 7. The Opening Ceremonies finish around 10 or so, by the time we get more than 4000 athletes back in buses to the Village....it makes it a very late and tiring day. Not worth it for the competitors. It was the same stories with swimming, cycling and athletics. We had about 100 athletes and staff not marching in. This should answer everybody's question regarding why our team looked so small.

Team breakfast

Getting our "dinner" bag as we arrive at the stadium

As we will be there for a while, we all get a brown bag for dinner. It was very simple but at least it was food. Then, after the usual pictures, selfies and team pics, we get bored. Then we start checking out other countries' outfits. A few of us started a hat hunt. We should have extended our search as we noticed, as we started marching, that many other countries were closer than we thought and had great hats!

Chile

Afghanistan

Aruba

Benin

Cape Verde, with the World Champion javelin thrower

Maybe another hat hunt will take place at closing ceremonies...Canada was close to the start since it is still spelled with a "C" in Portuguese. Marching is a big rush. I cannot explain the sentiment. Even if we are not the "real reason" we march as non-competitors and support staff, it is still a moment of pride to represent Canada. As we get closer, we then enter the tunnel, the cheers start and then we enter. It is when they announce the name that the crowd's cheers really kick in. The loudest is, of course, when the Crowd even witnesses the Brazilian flag starting to come out of the tunnel. The roar is deafening! The host city comes in last. There were 146 countries so the parade seems endless as we sit and comment on the outfits of different countries, who looks good and who we think doesn't. Also which piece of clothing is nice for trades.....the German jacket got a lot of attention.

Behind our flag as we inch around the outside of the stadium

The part of the show we saw was very good. I was impressed with the children with evident disabilities being the Paralympic Flag bearers with attachments allowing adults to bring them in walking. The face of these kids was priceless! What a great idea.

Then, as the flame came in, the rain came down. A downpour of biblical proportion fell. The organizing committee seems to have known something was going to happen as they had positioned many boxes full of small plastic ponchos distributed urgently to all delegations as we were in the uncovered part of the open stadium. We hung out in the downpour to see the flame get lit...then I ran for the buses. I managed, through big crowds of athletes, to get myself out of there surprisingly fast. I was back in the Village and in bed by 11:30. Some didn't get back to the Village until 1 in the morning!

This morning was our first game. Great Britain (GB) who historically doesn't have a great team but are getting much better. In fact, they have beaten our team every time they met this year in friendly tournaments. The reason...quality recruiting and training matched with the highest sports' directed budget in Europe. GB is pouring money in sports. Their goal is to dominate in WCBB, and other sports for sure, at the Tokyo games in 2020. They already show their strength in cycling as some of their qualifying rides at the track were world records this morning!

Winning against GB is crucial as they are in our pool which includes Germany, another powerhouse. If we start with a loss, it increases the stress of the game against the Germans in 3 days. It was not the best display of offence as the players missed so many shots (that they would normally make). The power of their defence allowed them to make the Brits miss even more. Canada won 43-36. This is very positive. Now they get tomorrow off and meet Argentina in 2 days. They don't get to rest too much as we are heading for practice in just over an hour...5:45 - 7:15 pm.

So I came back to the Village after staying back with one of our athletes selected for random antidoping. Since she couldn't produce enough ...we had to wait for a while. Had a quick lunch when I got back to the Village then hit the clinic to see if any work was needed. So far it's quiet - from a medical point of view. It's very busy from a physio, massage, rehab point of view as the therapy staff are always getting stuff done.

So for now, I take off to the next practice. Since I am also covering the men's goalball team and they practice right next door to the WCBB practice court at the same time, I can cover both. Perfect!

By the way, please visit the Canadian Paralympic Committee website for daily fantastic photos!!

http://cdnparalympics.photoshelter.com/gallery-collection/Rio-2016/C0000rnLwmT1DklA


A bientot

Where do I start....

The following will likely feel like disconnected thoughts. I'm just going to write about "stuff". Mostly  random.

Only one practice on the Main court

It's 9 pm. I'm sitting in the clinic chatting with colleagues and now that it's quieter, I decide I might as well write something. I didn't write anything yesterday, just a few pictures. It's not that I am very busy, so busy that I don't have time to sit down and write anything. I have had that experience at other Games when I blogged and only had a chance to get to my computer and m,y picture downloads after 11 at night. These Games are different. Seems like the physicians are around, we head to venues covering athletes at their practices and return to the clinic and spend lots of time "not seeing patients". This is a positive comment. The physiotherapists and massage therapists are keeping their athletes fine tuned and regular treatments take place daily. We get involved when more serious issues arise, illnesses develop or any medical concern needs clarification. It seems like athletes are coming into these Games in better health which could be a reflection of the budgets allocated to National Sport Organizations for medical series not only for these events but the 4 years leading to them .Better training and better health leads to fewer injuries and hopefully less illnesses.
What is inevitable are viral respiratory problems. It is already here. Someone has a cold then it spreads like wildfire. What is interesting is it seems people still ask for us to "to do something about it" and the next day comment they are "still feeling congested and unwell". I think they still assume we can cure it......It is one of the most common issue that seems minor but becomes a big stress. I heard to was the same for our Olympic colleagues who just let here.

It feels like I have been here for a long time....today marks the first week! Everyone is feeling it. People are getting restless, especially athletes.We have to get these Games started, Training and practices get tiring until the main reason to be here begins. We have to get the Opening Ceremonies done though. That's tomorrow. i hope you will have watch. We can't wait.

Every country gets an official "welcome" in the Village. It is a celebration making the statement the country is here. It is when the Canadian flag is raised and we was a large delegation make a lot of noise telling everyone :Canada is Here! We start with a big red and white (of course!) rally at our building then march behind our Chef de Mission, Chantal Petitclerc, to the Village Plaza. It was quite noisy and there was no doubt Canada is here to compete.

The women's national Wheelchair Basketball team. I have been the team MD since 2010. A great bunch to work with

It's not flapping in the windless night but the Canadian flag is up!

Chantal Petitclerc, a Chef de Mission who easily motivates every athlete to compete and give it their best effort

Today was also the other big highlight of every Games: who will carry the Canadian Flag and lead Team Canada at the Opening Ceremonies?We had our thoughts which were all wrong. I purposefully didn't read the team nominations in advance. I get that information as I am part of the Core Leadership for these Games. All year we have been preparing for these Games. Some of the email communications included the team submissions. The honour went to David Eng, a leading member of the Men's Wheelchair Basketball team since 2004. He was part of the Gold medal winning team 4 years ago in London. 

David, with the Assistant Chef de Mission Norm Orally on his right and Chantal Petitclerc on his left

He is a leader who will also have no difficulty engaging every Canadian athlete to fight for the podium.

So, on another disconnected thought, sometimes funny things happen and just catch everyone by surprise and gets us laughing which, if seen by unsuspecting eyes, can be misinterpreted as not very nice. Like when Rosalie backed her chair and got it caught on the little slope at the outside of the practice gym's floor and flipped herself effectively getting caught and unable to get herself up. Basically she turtled. Since she was laughing and saying "I'm stuck", we couldn't help but laugh and I even took the time to capture the moment. Here is Rosie trying to hide her face from my camera.I was able to convince her to smile...

A few more pics.

I wonder how long my sticky tattoos will last

Collector's item. Golden Coke bottle, only available in the Villa Paralympico

Out of nowhere this volunteer shows up on our bus with chocolate covered strawberries

For this of you concerned: I feel very safe here

Tomorrow: Opening ceremonies!!

Pictures....no time to write now

Hello to the few readers who still visit.

Here are a few pics from my activities yesterday

Just thought I would get a pic of one of the Chinese athletes demonstrating there are no limits to performance