Paraolympic Games 2008 in Beijing, China:  September 7 Update

Jim Hilyer, husband of local resident Lynn Artz, is the Sport Psychologist for the U.S. Team.  According to Jim, the paralympic games are the 2nd largest sporting event in the world with the Olympic Games being the first.  We will be featuring daily updates on the performance of the U.S. Team while in Beijing.  The games will be played from September 6 through September 17.

From the USA Daily:  U.S. Delegation Newsletter for the 2008 Paralympic Games

Sunday, September 7, 2008 Beijing, China

For more information on the U.S. Paralympic Team, please check www.usparalympics.org and www.usocpressbox.org .

2008 PARALYMPIC GAMES: U.S. Athletes “Amazed” at Opening Ceremony for the 2008 Paralympic Games

BEIJING, China – The 2008 Paralympic Games officially got underway at a sold-out Bird’s Nest Saturday evening with a Paralympic record 148  countries in attendance.

Following the U.S. Team’s parade into the stadium - led by flag bearer Jennifer Armbruster (Birmingham, Ala./Colorado Springs, Colo.) - Hu Jintao, the President of the People’s Republic of China, declared the 2008 Paralympic Games officially open.  The Paralympic flag was raised, and  afterwards a Chinese athlete in a wheelchair using a pulley hoisted himself to the top of the stadium, lighting the Paralympic flame to cheers from the crowd.

The theme of the Opening Ceremony was "Transcendence, Equality, Integration" and included drumming displays, live dancers and singers and  ended in a massive fireworks display.

A widely anticipated highlight of the Paralympic Games, the Opening Ceremony was enjoyed immensely by the U.S. Paralympic Team.  Flag bearer Jennifer Armbruster (Women’s Goalball/Birmingham, Ala.)  "It was amazing and really emotional - a lot of pride for the stars and stripes and what they represent. I was very humbled to lead in a fantastic delegation; it was my honor and privilege."

Jordan Mouton (Judo/Houston, Texas)  “It was amazing. This is my first Paralympic Games, and I’m pretty sure that no has done anything quite like
this one before. I also really enjoyed how they incorporated different people with all kinds of physical disabilities into the show.”

Danielle Fong (Shooting/New York, N.Y.)  “I saw the Opening Ceremony for the Olympic Games, so I knew it would be something spectacular – and it was.”

Jaime Mazzi (Men’s Wheelchair Basketball/Whitewater, Wis./Dorchester, Mass.)  “It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. My favorite part was the kids. It was the most athleticism I’ve ever seen. It was amazing.”

Dave Schobel (Wheelchair Tennis Team Leader)  “Unbelievable. Spiritual. Just fantastic how they used disabled artists to depict the spirit of the  Games. What are the British going to do?”

Tomorrow, Sunday, September 7, marks day one of competition.  The schedule includes competition in the following sports: boccia, cycling,  equestrian (in Hong Kong), goalball, shooting, sitting volleyball and swimming, table tennis and wheelchair basketball.

Pictured above right:  Flag bearer Jennifer Armbruster leads the U.S. Team into Opening Ceremonies.

ATHLETE PROFILE—Myles Porter

All-consuming training In a cafeteria filled with elite athletes, guess who eats the most? If you said those from triathlon and modern pentathlon, you  would hit the target. Then you might add bobsled and judo, or specifically Myles Porter, a resident Paralympic judo athlete at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Porter, who was one of two athletes profiled in a Today Show feature on the OTC Dining Hall in June 2008, has been known to  consume as many as 12,000 calories in a single day.  A native of Fremont, Ohio, and a former wrestler, the solidly built 22-year-old knows exactly what it means to make weight in his sport, but unlike wrestlers and his judo teammates who regularly must shed  pounds, Porter’s strength and conditioning regimen requires that he eat to gain muscle and bulk to reach his weight class of 100 kilos or 220 pounds.

{sidebar id=1}One of the newest faces to judo, Porter has been competing for less than three years and moved to Colorado Springs in January  2007 to train. He already ranks No. 10 in the world—only the third visually impaired judo athlete to be ranked nationally among sighted peers. In fact, unlike many visually impaired judo athletes, Porter competes at most of his matches with sighted rules and  nearly qualified for the Olympic Team. He compares his vision to looking down a football field; what he can see at 10 yards, others can see at 100  yards.

Shortly after the Today Show feature, Porter says he dropped back down to about 8,000 calories a day, still a rather imposing amount. His favorite  precompetition meal and one that has become a ritual consists of several McDonald’s cheeseburgers, French fries, and a chocolate or strawberry  milkshake.  Porter welcomes the fact that the Athlete Village in Beijing features its own McDonald’s.  While his eating habits may seem unorthodox, and he admits his coaches don’t like them, Porter says they understand because they work for him. 

Beijing will be Porter’s first appearance in the Paralympic Games, but if all goes according to plan, and gaining inspiration from athletes like wrestler T.C. Dantzler who is competing at age 37, Porter expects to be competing for years to come.

MELISSA STOCKWELL, Swimming (Minneapolis, Minn.), Iraq war veteran competing in the U.S. Paralympic Games in Beijing meets The Honorable James B. Peake, Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs, at the Flag Raising Ceremony.  (pictured at left)

Melissa Stockwell lives and trains at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., as part of the Veterans Paralympic Performance  Program (VP3).  She defended her country in uniform and now she will represent the U.S. at the Paralympic Games in Beijing in the pool, swimming the 100 free, 100 fly and the 400 free.

On April 13, 2004, Stockwell was on a routine convoy and was hit by a roadside bomb. The blast blew off her left leg, and today Stockwell stands as an above-theknee amputee. After spending a year at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and undergoing multiple surgeries and rehabilitation, she was  medically retired from the Army.

Schedule of Upcoming Events for Team USA (subject to change)

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Boccia, Fencing Hall
9:00 BC1 Pool play, Round 1, Timothy Hawker (Holland, Ohio)
12:00 BC1, Pool Play, Round 2 Timothy Hawker (Holland, Ohio)

Cycling, Laoshan Velodrome
10:00 Men CP 4, Individual Pursuit, Qualification, Mike Farrell (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
13:30 Men LC 3/LC 4, 1 Km TT, Final, Anthony Zahn (Riverside, Calif.)
14:55 Women B&VI 1-3, 1 Km TT, Final, Karissa Whitsell (Colorado Springs, Colo./Eugene, Ore.) and Mackenzie Woodring (Grand Rapids, Mich.)
16:10 Men CP 4, Individual Pursuit, Final, Mike Farrell (Colorado Springs, Colo.)

Equestrian, Hong Kong Equestrian Venue
7:30 Team Test, Grade III & II
19:15 Team Test, Grade IB, IA & IV

Goalball, Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium
18:00 Women's Preliminaries, USA vs. JPN
20:00 Men’s Preliminaries, USA vs. CHN

Shooting, Beijing Shooting Range Hall
9:00 R2-10m Air Rifle Standing; SH1 Women Qualification, Danielle Fong (New York, N.Y.)

Sitting Volleyball, China Agricultural University Gymnasium
9:30 USA vs Lithuania

Swimming (Preliminaries), National Aquatic Center
9:00 Men’s 200m Freestyle (S2), Curtis Lovejoy (Atlanta, Ga.)
9:21 Women’s 100m Butterfly (S13), Kelley Becherer (Sheboygan, Wis)
9:25 Men’s 100m Freestyle (S3), Michael DeMarco (San Diego, Calif.)
9:34 Men’s 100m Freestyle (S4), Joe McCarthy (San Diego, Calif.)
9:39 Women’s 100m Freestyle (S4), Cheryl Angelelli-Kornoelje (Clinton Township, Mich.), Aimee Bruder (Birmingham, Ala.)
9:46 Men’s 100m Freestyle (S5), Roy Perkins (Del Mar, Calif.)
9:52 Women’s 100m Freestyle (S5), Marin Morrison (Sammamish, Wash.)
10:07 Women’s 200m IM (SM6), Miranda Uhl (Alachua, Fla.), Casey Johnson (Cypress, Calif.)
10:16 Men’s 200m IM (SM7), Rudy Garcia-Tolson (Colorado Springs, Colo./Bloomington, Calif.)
10:25 Women’s 200m IM (SM7), Erin Popovich (Fort Collins, Colo./Silverbow, Mont.), Cortney Jordan, (Henderson, Nev.), Deb Gruen (Hamden, Conn.)
10:34 Men’s 100m Butterfly (S8), Rudy Garcia-Tolson (Colorado Springs, Colo./Bloomington, Calif.)
10:39 Women’s 100m Butterfly (S8), Jessica Long (Baltimore, Md.), Amanda Everlove (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
10:43 Men’s 100m Butterfly (S9), Mark Barr (Davis, Calif.), Cody Bureau (Colorado Springs, Colo./Latrobe, Pa.), Michael Prout (West Springfield, Mass.)
10:47 Women’s 100m Butterfly (S9), Elizabeth Stone (Grand Rapids, Mich.), April Kerley (Loveland, Ohio), Melissa Stockwell (Colorado Springs, Colo./ Minneapolis, Minn.)

Swimming (Finals) National Aquatic Center
17:00 Men’s 200m Freestyle (S2) Finals
17:14 Women’s 100m Butterfly (S13) Finals
17:20 Men’s 100m Freestyle (S3) Finals
17:42 Men’s 100m Freestyle (S4) Finals
17:48 Women’s 100m Freestyle (S4) Finals
18:11 Men’s 100m Freestyle (S5) Finals
18:17 Women’s 100m Freestyle (S5) Finals
18:39 Women’s 200m IM (SM6) Finals
18:39 Men’s 200m IM (SM7) Finals
19:17 Women’s 200m IM (SM7) Finals
19:41 Men’s 100m Butterfly (S8) Finals
19:47 Women’s 100m Butterfly (S8) Finals
20:09 Men’s 100m Butterfly (S9) Finals
20:14 Women’s 100m Butterfly (S9) Finals

Table Tennis, Peking University Gymnasium
10:00 Men’s singles, class 7, round 1, USA vs. POL, Mitch Seidenfeld (Lakeville, Minn.)
12:40 Women’s singles, class 5, round 1, USA vs. JPN, Noga Nir-Kistler (Allentown, Pa.)
17:20 Men’s singles, class 4-5, round 1, USA vs. GER, Andre Scott (Fort Worth, Tex.)
19:20 Men’s singles, class 9-10, round 1, USA vs. NED, Tahl Leibovitz (Ozone Park, N.Y.)

Wheelchair Basketball, National Indoor Stadium
1:30 Men’s, Preliminary, USA vs. Israel

This newsletter originally published on September 7, 2008.

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