Are you juice'n? No. Okay, are you pinch'n?
If you saw it happen, it would look bizarre: an athlete self-harming by punching themselves in the stomach or hitting their toes with a hammer. It's called boosting and it gives some para-athletes a competitive advantage through a rise in blood pressure and an elevated heart rate. The practice has been banned by the International Paralympics Committee and the IPC will monitor blood pressure and look for signs of boosting when the games open in Rio next week.
But one athlete thinks the IPC won't find anything.
"They're just doing that to protect themselves - like they want to show that they're doing something about it," quadriplegic athlete Brad Zdanivsky told me. "But the feasibility of actually catching someone boosting with the blood pressure cuff, it's almost laughable."
Zdanivsky would know. He's been boosting for years.
In 2005, on his second attempt and after 14 hours, Zdanivsky became the first quadriplegic to climb the Stawamus Chief, a fabled 700 metre rock face in B.C. He and his team designed new equipment that would make that feat possible, including harnesses that helped Zdanivsky use his back and neck muscles to pull himself up. And part of his preparation involved the technology that helped him boost.
Quadriplegics often have what Zdanivsky calls "notoriously low" heart rates and blood pressure. For the non-disabled, blood pressure rises naturally when they engage in physical activity. So by causing pain to part of their body, some para-athletes are able to jack up those rates. Zdanivsky used electric shocks. He rigged up a computer to monitor his response and attached electrodes to his body. Cont.
Story from - CBC News
No comments:
Post a Comment