scholarly journals The Development of Medical Care in Polish Paralympic Sport

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 39-48
Author(s):  
Wojciech Gawroński ◽  
Joanna Sobiecka
Keyword(s):  
Medical Care ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Sports Medicine ◽  
Massage Therapist ◽  
Domestic Literature ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Athletes With Disabilities ◽  
Paralympic Sport ◽  
Medicine Analysis ◽  
Paralympic Games

Precursory preparticipation examination among athletes took place during the interwar period of the 20th century at university centres, which laid the foundation for present sports and medical counselling. The first study was founded in Lvov in 1924. Initially, care was provided for non-disabled athletes, despite the fact that international sport organizations for the disabled athletes were established in those years. The interest in medical care of athletes with disabilities increased at the end of the previous century, along with the development of Paralympic sport. At the beginning of the 21st century, entire chapters devoted to this subject appeared in sports medicine textbooks. In 2018, in the book titled “Adaptive Sports Medicine”, it was finally confirmed that so-called ‘pre-participation evaluation’ is important in assessing the health status of all athletes with disabilities. However, in Poland, up until the end of the 20th century, people with various disabilities practicing sports were practically not interested in sports medicine. Analysis of available documentation and domestic literature suggests that the development of medical care in Polish Paralympic sport took place in four periods, ranging from rehabilitation to the implementation of mandatory preparticipation examination in the field of sports medicine. Moreover, the Paralympic Games in Atlanta (1996) proved to be an important event in this aspect. For the first time, the Polish representation was accompanied by a specialist in sports medicine and a massage therapist. Apart from this, a breakthrough in the development of medical care was the establishment of the Polish Paralympic Committee in 1998, which undertook many initiatives in this area. However, it was only in 2012, following the Regulation of the Minister of Health from 2011, that obligatory preparticipation examination in the field of sports medicine were enforced for all Polish athletes and representatives of the Paralympic team. But unfortunately, to this day, medical care is stock and limited to the years of paralympic games.

Classification of Disabled Athletes: (Dis)Empowering the Paralympic Practice Community

2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. David Howe ◽  
Carwyn Jones
Keyword(s):  
International Organizations ◽  
Functional System ◽  
Classification Systems ◽  
Specific System ◽  
Organization And Management ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Paralympic Sport ◽  
Practice Community ◽  
Paralympic Games

In recent years the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the institution responsible for the administration, organization, and management of the Paralympic Games, has reshaped the landscape of sport for the disabled. This article argues that the IPC has marginalized the practice community, notably the International Organizations of Sport for the Disabled. By wrestling away control of the classification systems developed by these organizations, the IPC has transformed them to such an extent that they fail to provide opportunities for equitable sporting practice and the result has been a threat to the ideology of Paralympism. We illustrate this by examining two classification systems that are currently used within Paralympic Sport: the integrated functional system employed in the sport of swimming and the disability-specific system used within athletics.

scholarly journals Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on athletes with disabilities preparing for the Paralympic Games in Tokyo

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Urbański ◽  
Łukasz Szeliga ◽  
Tomasz Tasiemski
Keyword(s):  
Sport Performance ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Athletes With Disabilities ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Paralympic Games

Abstract Objective The main aim of the study was to assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on athletes preparing for the Tokyo 2021 Paralympic Games during the lockdown period in Poland. The study involved 166 athletes, members of either the Polish Paralympic Committee or the Polish Sports Association for the Disabled ’Start’, two organizations responsible for managing and regulating sports played by persons with disabilities in Poland. Results Athletes with disabilities have been strongly affected by the pandemic and the resultant lockdown, which limited or prevented their participation in training sessions and possibly hampered their future sport performance during the Tokyo 2021.

scholarly journals Medical Care Before and During the Winter Paralympic Games in Turin 2006, Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wojciech Gawroński ◽  
Joanna Sobiecka
Keyword(s):  
Medical Care ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Medical Intervention ◽  
Health Condition ◽  
Massage Therapist ◽  
Quality Of Medical Care ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
Disabled Sports ◽  
Paralympic Games

Abstract Medical care in disabled sports is crucial both as prophylaxis and as ongoing medical intervention. The aim of this paper was to present changes in the quality of medical care over the consecutive Paralympic Games (PG). The study encompassed 31 paralympians: Turin (11), Vancouver (12), and Sochi (8) competing in cross-country skiing, alpine skiing, biathlon and snowboarding. The first, questionnaire-based, part of the study was conducted in Poland before the PG. The athletes assessed the quality of care provided by physicians, physiologists, dieticians, and physiotherapists, as well as their cooperation with the massage therapist and the psychologist. The other part of the study concerned the athletes’ health before leaving for the PG, as well as their diseases and injuries during the PG. The quality of medical care was poor before the 2006 PG, but satisfactory before the subsequent PG. Only few athletes made use of psychological support, assessing it as poor before the 2006 PG and satisfactory before the 2010 and 2014 PG. The athletes’ health condition was good during all PG. The health status of cross-country skiers was confirmed by a medical fitness certificate before all PG, while that of alpine skiers only before the 2014 PG. There were no serious diseases; training injuries precluded two athletes from participation. The quality of medical care before the PG was poor, however, became satisfactory during the actual PG. The resulting ad hoc pattern deviates from the accepted standards in medical care in disabled sports.

scholarly journals Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on athletes with disabilities preparing for the Paralympic Games in Tokyo

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Urbański ◽  
Łukasz Szeliga ◽  
Tomasz Tasiemski
Keyword(s):  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Training Time ◽  
Weekly Training ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Athletes With Disabilities ◽  
Sport Facilities ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Paralympic Games ◽  
At Home

Abstract Objective The main aim of the study was to assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on athletes preparing for the Tokyo 2021 Paralympic Games during 1 month of lockdown in Poland. The study involved 166 athletes (106 male, 66 female), members of either the Polish Paralympic Committee or the Polish Sports Association for the Disabled’Start’, two organizations responsible for managing and regulating sports played by persons with disabilities in Poland. Results Athletes with disabilities have been strongly affected by the pandemic and the resultant lockdown. The majority of respondents reported that they trained at home (88.6%), whereas 60.2% of athletes trained outdoors, and 12% suspended their training regimens altogether. Only 5.4% of athletes had some access to sport facilities. The athletes reduced their weekly training time by almost half (9.4 h/week vs. 5.3 h/week), a statistically significant difference (t = 16.261, p < 0.001).

The Rio 2016 Paralympic Games: The Visibility of People With Disabilities in Brazil as a Possible Legacy

2020 ◽  
pp. 216747952094273
Author(s):  
Doralice Lange de Souza ◽  
Ian Brittain
Keyword(s):  
Medical Model ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Disability Rights ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
The Media ◽  
Paralympic Sport ◽  
Medical Model Of Disability ◽  
Managerial Positions ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Paralympic Games

There are claims that the Paralympic Games (PG) might contribute to a better world for people with disabilities (PWD). However, there are also claims that the PG might in fact be counterproductive to the PWD’s rights movement because they might promote the medical model of disability and/or ableism. In this context, we developed a qualitative exploratory study to investigate the legacies of the Rio 2016 PG from the perspective of disability rights activists and people involved in Paralympic sport managerial positions. In this article, we discuss one of the main perceived legacies that the PG fostered PWD’s visibility and a change in society’s perception of PWD. We conducted 24 open in-depth interviews and found that, for our participants, the PG worked as a showcase for PWD who were rarely seen in the media and in public spaces before the Games. This visibility helped to challenge negative stereotypes and stigmas associated with PWD, as well as possibly opening new doors for them. Our interviewees believe that we shouldn’t expect that the PG alone can change people’s perceptions and PWD’s status overnight. They are part of a larger and complex set of actions that are slowly contributing to this process.

Access for all: the rise of the Paralympic Games

2007 ◽  
Vol 127 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Gold ◽  
Margaret M. Gold
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
Opening Ceremony ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
Athletes With Disabilities ◽  
International Participation ◽  
Central Arena ◽  
Changing Attitudes ◽  
Therapeutic Competition ◽  
Second World ◽  
Paralympic Games

The Paralympic, or Parallel, Games for athletes with disabilities have played a major role over the past half century in changing attitudes towards disability and accelerating the agenda for inclusion. This article charts their development from small beginnings as a competition for disabled ex-servicemen and women in England founded shortly after the Second World War to the present day ambulatory international festival of Summer and Winter Games organized in conjunction with the Olympic Games. The Paralympic Games trace their origins to the work of Dr (later Sir) Ludwig Guttmann at the National Spinal Injuries Unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire who used sport as an integral part of the treatment of paraplegic patients. A sports competition was held at the hospital to coincide with the Opening Ceremony of the London Games in July 1948. This became an annual event attracting the first international participation in 1952, after which it became the International Stoke Mandeville Games. From 1960 onwards attempts were made to hold every fourth Games in the Olympic host city. Despite initial success in staging the 1960 Games in Rome and the 1964 Games in Tokyo, subsequent host cities refused to host the competitions and alternative locations were found where a package of official support, finance and suitable venues could be assembled. In 1976, the scope of the Games was widened to accept other disabilities. From 1988 onwards, a process of convergence took place that saw the Paralympics brought into the central arena of the Olympics, both literally and figuratively. In the process they have embraced new sports, have encompassed a wider range of disabilities, and helped give credence to the belief that access to sport is available to all. The Paralympics also underline the change from sport as therapeutic competition to that of elite events that carry intrinsic prestige, with growing rivalry over medal tables. For the future, however, questions remain as to whether the current arrangements of separate but supposedly equal festivals assist the continuing development of the Paralympics or perpetuate difference.

scholarly journals Emergency Medical Care and Management of Sports Injuries on the Football Court

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 773-777
Author(s):  
Basri Lenjani ◽  
Premtim Rashiti ◽  
Gani Shabani ◽  
Arber Demiri ◽  
Besarta Pelaj ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Sports Medicine ◽  
Sports Injuries ◽  
Multiple Injuries ◽  
Emergency Medical Care ◽  
Treatment And Prevention ◽  
Emergency Medical ◽  
Limb Injuries ◽  
Football Field

Introduction; Sports medicine is a clinical subspecialty that deals with the examination, monitoring, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of injuries that occur during sports events, training and physical activities in pre-hospital settings. Managing dramatic situations with minor and multiple injuries is a challenge that requires a quick approach to a dramatic event in managing minor and multiple injuries on the football field and in other sports in support of SHME at pre-hospital and hospital level. Purpose of the paper. Providing emergency medical care at all basic stages of managing minor and multiple injuries on the football field and in other sports in order to implement BLS, ACLS, BTLS, PTLS, ATLS care measures reducing morbidity, disability, and mortality. Material and methods. The research is of retrospective, descriptive, qualitative type. The material was taken from the archive of the Emergency Clinic of UCCK for the period January-December 2019. Only the sick or injured in sports matches were taken in the research; Age, gender, type of illness and injury and type of medical care, equipment available, and training and education. Result. Sports injuries are very costly, and according to the pathology with diseases were 15 cases or 21.4 %, injuries were 55 cases or 78/6 %. Injured by age. The largest number of injured with injuries in the field of football sports the most affected age was the age of 21-25 years with 28 cases or 40.00%, over 25 years were 27 cases or 38.58% and with a smaller number were aged 15-20 years15 cases or 21.42%. Discussion and conclusions. A very important factor in sports injuries is the provision of optimal medical care for footballers and other sports in head, neck, spine, chest, abdomen, and pelvis and limb injuries and with a joint communication with the cooperation of health care professionals in the selection of priority cases. Education of medical staff, nurses, paramedics with courses, use of medical equipment, BLS, ACLS, BTLS, PTLS, ATLS as well as standard procedures for providing and transporting medical care to the hospital.

Death and Disability

2020 ◽  
pp. 133-159
Author(s):  
Judkin Browning ◽  
Timothy Silver
Keyword(s):  
Medical Care ◽  
Environmental Effects ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
The Dead

This chapter discusses the environmental effects of death, and what happens when a corpse becomes part of the natural environment. Bodies decomposed rapidly, producing an unbearable stench. It led both armies to develop techniques for burial, embalming, and transportation of the dead to prevent sickness. The Overland Campaign—especially the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and the Crater—and its extraordinary number of casualties, is the primary military focus. The chapter also discusses the advancements in medical care to treat wounded soldiers. Large numbers of disabled men had environmental effects as well, such as fewer acres of farmland due to the loss of labor, and expensive government policies to provide pensions for the disabled after the war.

Technology and Disabilities in the Century Ahead

2011 ◽  
pp. 2077-2081
Author(s):  
Ray Kurzweil
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Current Level ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Speed Up ◽  
Technology Trends ◽  
Over Time

I have been involved in inventing since I was five, and I quickly realized that for an invention to succeed, you have to target the world of the future. But what would the future be like? To find out, I became a student of technology trends and began to develop mathematical models of different technologies: computation, miniaturization, evolution over time. I have been doing that for 25 years, and it has been remarkable to me how powerful and predictive these models are. Now, before I show you some of these models and then try to build with you some of the scenarios for the future—and, in particular, focus on how these will benefit technology for the disabled—I would like to share one trend that I think is particularly profound and that many people fail to take into consideration. It is this: the rate of progress—what I call the “paradigmshift rate”—is itself accelerating. We are doubling this paradigm-shift rate every decade. The whole 20th century was not 100 years of progress as we know it today, because it has taken us a while to speed up to the current level of progress. The 20t h century represented about 20 years of progress in terms of today’s rate. And at today’s rate of change, we will achieve an amount of progress equivalent to that of the whole 20th century in 14 years, then as the acceleration continues, in 7 years. The progress in the 21st century will be about 1,000 times greater than that in the 20th century, which was no slouch in terms of change.

scholarly journals Evaluation of Dietary Supplement Use in Wheelchair Rugby Athletes

Nutrients ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1958 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robyn Madden ◽  
Jane Shearer ◽  
David Legg ◽  
Jill Parnell
Keyword(s):  
Dietary Supplement ◽  
Wheelchair Rugby ◽  
Supplement Use ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nutritional Guidelines ◽  
Athletes With Disabilities ◽  
Supplement Usage ◽  
Paralympic Sport ◽  
Dietary Supplement Use ◽  
Reasons For Use

Wheelchair rugby is a rapidly growing Paralympic sport; however, research remains predominantly in the realms of physiology and biomechanics. Currently, there is little investigation into nutrition and dietary supplement use among wheelchair rugby athletes (WRA). The aim of this study was to assess the types of dietary supplements (DS) used, the prevalence of usage, and the reasons for use among WRA. The secondary aim was to report utilized and preferred sources of nutritional information among this population. A valid, reliable Dietary Supplement Questionnaire was used to report supplement use and reasons for use. Male (n = 33) and female (n = 9) WRA were recruited at a national tournament and through emailing coaches of various Canadian teams. Dietary supplement usage was prevalent as 90.9% of males and 77.8% of females reported usage within the past three months with the most regularly used supplements being vitamin D (26.2%), electrolytes (19.5%), and protein powder (19.5%). The most common reason for usage was performance. The top sources of nutrition information were dietitian/nutritionist and the internet. Further investigation into DS use is needed to help create nutritional guidelines that are accessible to WRA and athletes with disabilities in general.

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