It's really hard to win Olympic medal ... but do you need 2 legs and 2 hands, excellent vision and hearing to be one of the best sportsmen or –women in the world? Not really.

Everybody knows Michael Phelps who is considered the greatest swimmer of all time as well as one of the greatest Olympians of all time. He won 8 gold medals at a single Olympics – in total 14 gold medals in his career which is the most by any other Olympian.

It's a formidable result and it's hard to imagine that somebody could achieve even better results in terms of the number of gold medals won. Well, somebody did – she's a woman and she's blind from birth.

Trischa Zorn is an American swimmer and the most successful athlete in the history of the Paralympic Games. She won more gold medals in single event than Phelps (12 at the Seoul Paralympic Games and 10 at the Barcelona Games) and in total she has won 41 gold medals in her Paralympic career (1980-2004).
But most people haven't even heard about her.

Winning Olympic medal is hard enough ... but it takes a lot more commitment and inner strength to win a Paralympic medal for let's say:

- skiing, cycling or doing athletics on just one leg ...

- playing hockey, basketball or volleyball without using legs ...

- playing football or handball without the use of sight...

In the last years performances by Paralympic athlets are nearing those of Olympic athlets, sometimes even surpassing them. These athlets train as hard as any able-bodied athlete. So why are Paralympic champions less known than their Olympic fellow sportsmen and -women?

Paralympic games are held every 4 years following the Olympic Games and are the largest sports event other than the Olympics. But while the Olympic Games get constant (live) coverage in media all over the world, the Paralympic Games still receive very limited media coverage or non at all.

Although media coverage of the Paralympics is better now than it ever was, the Paralympic athlets still don't get the credit they deserve and need (getting sponsors very much depends on the media coverage).
One could argue that this is a commercial world and that media will only cover stories which interest people and make advertisers happy. And since our culture is so oriented toward »normal, able« bodies, the athlets with disabilities, no matter how outstanding results they achieve, simply don't make it to the news.

If Olympic athlets are stars, the Paralympians are superstars. If you need proof – just count the medals they won and all the records they broke. Not only these sportsmen and –women combat their own handicaps, but are also dedicated to become the best at sports which most of us would find very hard to master. Just imagine what more could they accomplish if the funding, training and sports science support available to able-bodied athletes is made available to disabled athletes.

Hopefully Paralympics will live up to the name – parallel Olympics. They were named so, because the games run parallel to each other, not with one being less important than the other. And here you can find the true meaning of the Olympic spirit – when a man with no arms wins a silver medal in competition with swimmers with arms, though with their own disabilities.

More info:

www.en.paralympic.beijing2008.cn
www.paralympics.org