Disabled athletes at Beijing 2008

Though you may not realize it if you've been watching the TV coverage of the Olympics, there is more than Michael Phelps and beach volleyball. The Montreal Gazette has a good article on two athletes who are competing in Beijing 2008 who are missing part of an arm and a leg respectively.

"Natalia Partyka of Poland, who was born with a right arm that ends at the elbow, competed in women's team table tennis today. Natalie du Toit of South Africa, whose left leg was amputated just below the knee after a 2001 motorcycle accident, will swim the new 10-kilometre open-water discipline next week."

Media dis&dat has pictures of the two athletes in action

Though he didn't qualify for the Olympics, Oscar Pistorious will run at the Paralympic games. If you're not familiar with him, he fought (and won) to compete against able bodied runners, and there was some debate about whether he had an advantage because of his prosthetics. Though from last year, the video below is an interesting piece on the S. African runner.



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