For para-athletes, mid-game and pre-competition repairs are typical. Even in the most competitive settings, wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs, and other essential equipment can and do malfunction.
This can happen especially in a high-contact sport like wheelchair rugby. At the halftime of Germany’s wheelchair rugby match versus Canada at the Paralympics in Paris, Jens Sauerbier needed a wheelchair repair since he was missing a vital component.
The athlete stated: “The metal cage at the front of my chair broke. They welded it for me during halftime, then I was ready to go again.” Technicians had to weld the chair back together in ten minutes. If not, Sauerbier claims that he would have lost the game.
He further declared: “If you’re driving against other people at 15/20 km/h, some things might break… These are athletes that are competing at their absolute highest. They’re breaking world records, so they’re going to break stuff.”
Prosthetics manufacturer Ottobock, a German medical technology company, was on hand to help Paralympians compete even when their equipment malfunctioned. The business claimed to have completed almost 2,700 repairs during the Games and set up a pop-up facility inside the Paralympic Village.
Furthermore, the company claimed that about 45% of the repairs were for prosthetics, orthotics, and other items, while about 55% of the repairs were for wheelchairs. The company was also present at para-athletics and para-archery competitions, but it was also on hand to service competitors’ regular equipment if it broke down and they were impeded or slowed down.
Ottobock has been at every Paralympic Games since Seoul in 1988. The company will also be on hand for repairs at the Winter Paralympics in Milano-Cortina in 2026.
Source: CNA