COVER STORY
At the
Summit
Four U.S. Paralympic athletes—and their clinicians—finalize preparations to compete in the mountains of South Korea By LIA K. DANGELICO
NEED TO KNOW
24
Nearly 700 athletes will compete in the 2018 Paralympic Games March 9-18 in PyeongChang, South Korea. Many of the competitors benefit from O&P intervention, including Stephani Victor, Josh Pauls, Andrew Kurka, and Nicole Roundy.
Clinicians should work closely with elite athletes and incorporate their suggestions, such as feedback on successes and failures with previous mechanical designs, into componentry decisions to achieve maximum comfort and function.
Competitors sometimes challenge prosthetists to stretch out of their comfort zone and create unique componentry to help patients achieve very specific goals during competition—such as the monoski Victor asked her prosthetist to build.
Competing in the Games requires an enormous amount of discipline and training, as well as appropriate componentry. Prosthetic devices designed with intimate fit—for ultimate control and proprioception— as well as reliable suspension can help amputee athletes achieve their goals.
Even those athletes who compete without their prostheses—such as Pauls, who is captain of the U.S. sled hockey team—benefit from carefully designed prostheses that aid in their training and conditioning.
Competing in front of a world stage offers competitors the chance to set an example for other individuals with disabilities, and to show others what is possible—whether or not they come home with medals.
FEBRUARY 2018 | O&P ALMANAC