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08/09/24 08:31 AM IST

Assistive technology in Para athletes

In News
  •  Indian para-athletes created history at the Paris Games by winning 27 medals as surpassing the country’s previous best performance at the Games in 2021.
Assistive Technology
  • Products and their related systems (mechanical or electronic) which aid any individual’s functioning with respect to his cognition, hearing, mobility, vision, communication are defined as ‘assistive technology’, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
  • Assistive technology is used mainly by old people, children and adults with disabilities and people with long-term health issues such as diabetes, dementia.
  • Sometimes assistive technology is temporarily used by people recuperating from an accident or illness.
  • These products help assist people in bettering their health, well-being and inclusion of participation in their family, community, sports and all areas of society.
  • Common examples of assistive are hearing aids, wheelchairs, therapeutic footwear which are used by people for general use.
  • Sportspersons use assistive technologies like modified racing bicycles, release brace in archery, running blades, modified wheelchairs to name a few.
Working
  • In Paralympic Games (as of 2024), there are 22 sports in which 4000 athletes are competing in 549 medal events.
  • Some sort of assistive technology is used in all of these sports, with the most being used in Para Archery, Para Athletics, Para Badminton, Para Judo, Para powerlifting, shooting para sport, para swimming, Para table tennis, Para cycling, Para Canoe.
  • Apart from assistive technology, classification of athletes helps in determining their eligibility to compete in the sport and group them based on the extent of their impairments apart from gender or weight.
  • Classification is customised to the sport and grouped into ‘sport classes’ based on the activity limitation caused by their impairment.
Para Archery
  • In Para archery, athletes shoot arrows from a distance of 50 or 70 metres using either recurve, compound bow in the open category and in the W1 category for athletes impairments in both top and bottom halves of their bodies, using either bow with a release brace.
  • The release braces is strapped onto the upper body of the athlete and a manual trigger mechanism or other hinges aid the archer to release the arrow.
  • India’s only para archer without arms, Sheetal Devi, who won a bronze medal in Paris uses a release brace attached to a compound bow which is equipped with mechanical pulleys and telescopic sight for accuracy.
Para Athletics
  • The largest sporting category with 164 medal events sees para athletes compete in track and field competitions such as long jump, high jump, club throw, discus throw, javelin throw, shot put, and races spanning 100m to 5000m, 4x100m universal relay and the marathon.
  • While athletes are classified as per specifications of the sport, athletes use an array of assisted technology such as wheelchairs, gloves, running blades, sighted guides apart from the sporting equipment such as discus, shot put etc.
  • The wheelchairs used in racing events are made of aluminium or carbon fibre to make it light and stable and customised to an athlete’s body.
  • A 10-15 degree camber may be added to the wheels to give them lateral stability when an athlete is going at full speed. Gloves used to push these chairs are made by 3D-printing technology to cater to customised needs.
Shooting
  • Athletes compete in two categories – SH1 (upper and/or lower body impairment) in pistol or rifle events and SH2 (upper limb and/or lower limb impairment) in rifle events using a shooting stand to support the rifle.
  • The athletes may be standing or use a wheelchair for these events. In Paris, India’s wheelchair-bound para shooters Avani Lekhara, Mona Agarwal have clinched multiple medals in rifle shooting events.
Para swimming
  • One of the most open sport, para swimming, has 141 medal events in which 600 athletes compete spanning all eligible impairment groups – visual, physical and intellectual).
  • Athletes participate in backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle, individual medley and relay events using several assistive technology.
  • The sport has witnessed athletes with spinal cord injuries, amputees, vision impairment, cerebral palsy, Depending on their impairment, the race can begin with a dive, a grip, holding a rope with their mouth and in the water.
  • Physically impaired athletes are classified into ten sport classes and have to compete without any protheses. 
Need of technology
  • According to WHO’s Global report on assistive technology (2022), only 3% of people in some low-income countries have access to the assistive products in comparison to 90% in some high-income countries.
  • Detailing the lack of most commonly used assistive technologies, WHO estimates that only 5-35% of the 80 million people who need a wheelchair have access to it, while less than 10% of the 1.5 billion suffering from hearing loss have a hearing aid to assist them.
  • Need for these technologies is a global necessity, specially in sporting events.
  • Use of assistive technology began with the first official Paralympics in 1968 when regular wheelchairs with simple strapping were used.
  • As technology evolved, most of the above-mentioned products were put to use by the end of 2000s, promoting inclusion, diversity and opportunity to para athletes.
  • The biggest breakthrough has been the running blades which have enabled lower-limb impaired athletes to compete at speeds comparable to, and sometimes even faster than regular athletes.
Source- The Hindu

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