Turin Paralympic Winter Games
Chatting at the AGM last Thursday, I explained I had just returned from Turin where my daughter Pascale had been participating in the Paralympic Winter Games in March. One of the ladies I was talking to suggested that I should write an article about it in the TWIG magazine ‘Grapevine’ and Hilary kindly agreed. So here I am, trying to do my best to explain how all this could have happened.
Pascale has been partially sighted since birth but it never prevented her from being very lively, may I say restless and always on the go. In fact she made us understand we should not worry about her more than most parents generally worry about their children and she did several sports, mainly horse riding which she loved, and gymnastics. ‘I started skiing at the age of 4 because I liked it’ she says. She attended an ordinary school near where we lived, went to University and has been a Human Resources Executive at EDF since 1999.
However, in 1995 she became a member of the French Handicapped Alpine Sports Team which meant of course she was going to ski much faster, something she had been dreaming about for a long time. She was going to need a guide to compete in the alpine skiing contests, Downhill, Super G, Giant Slalom and Slalom. A guide skis ahead and gives information by transmitter/ receiver to the visually impaired skier, who is skiing a few metres behind. What the guide says may sound something like “left, left, left” or “le-e-eft” depending on the curve of the bend or bumps, etc. of the piste. The guide acts as a co-driver and map reader, which is a huge responsibility. The faster the speed the more difficult the job, in fact in Downhill their speeds reach 70 to 100 kilometres per hour depending on the slope. These speeds leave no room for hesitation in either orders or reactions. Each pair of skiers has to work out their own code, but it takes at least two years of practice to become an efficient team.
Benedicte Sainas, a ski instructor in Ax trois Domaines in the Pyrenees, has been guiding Pascale for three years now. They won four golds in the 2004 world championships and the overall World Cup 2004-2005. In Nagano and Salt Lake City Paralympics, Pascale and Michael Génin ( who was then her guide ) won 8 medals; a gold, six silvers and a bronze.
So to this year, but Pascale broke her collar bone in training, four weeks before Turin. It was operated on and though her fracture was not fully mended by the time of the contest, she took the risk of competing. A very happy decision! The Turin Winter Paralympic Games was a beautiful event, well organised by friendly Italian people and a very big crowd of about 6,000 supporters representing 39 nations from all over the world, cheered on the competitors and ‘warmed up’ the arrival area. Pascale competed in the alpine skiing and got two gold medals for Downhill and Slalom and one silver for Giant Slalom.
The 8 days spent in Turin were a unique, deeply moving, emotionally stressing and certainly never-to-be-forgotten experience.
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