Racing My Way to the Top

Both of these images are my own.









"Wheelers set, go".  This is what I hear before every race.  You might be wondering, "Wait... isn't she in a wheelchair?  How can she be talking about races?"  Well, this post will explain all of that.  In this post, I will discuss wheelchair track and field.

I have been doing the sport for six years, I am currently in my seventh year.  I started in middle school.  When I first started, I was not quite sure how it would work out.  At the time, my coach lived across the street from me.  He was the one who convinced me to join.  I fell in love with it.  Once I got into high school, I started taking it more seriously.  In middle school, I just raced in my everyday chair.  In high school, I purchased a racing chair, which you can see in the picture on the left.  Now, I am going to delve into how to race and how to throw.

Throughout high school, I did three racing events.  They were the 100 meters, 400 meters, and 800 meters.  My best 100 time was 23 seconds.  My best 400 time was a minute and 45 seconds.  My best 800 time was three minutes and 8 seconds.   In the above video, it explains what the racing stroke looks like.  Each racer wears gloves that fold over.  These gloves are used to hit the wheel to propel the chair forward.    What the racer needs to do is hit the wheel with the gloves and push around the rim, then lift up their arms and come back down to repeat.  Also, the brake is in front of the racer.  There is a lever that the racer can use to turn the chair onto roads.  When racing on a track, there is what is called a compensator.  This is tweaked to each individual track so that the racer can hit it with the glove and seamlessly turn around the curves, then hit it again to be straight for the straightaways.  See the diagram below.

Photo Courtesy of www.draftwheelchairs.com

Now, I am going to explain three seated throws, shot put, discus, and javelin.  I did seated shot put all throughout high school and middle school.  This year, I have begun to do the other two as well.

In high school, my farthest shot put throw was ten feet, three inches.  On each throwing chair, there is a long pole that athletes grab onto to pull themselves forward.  For shot put, each ball is made of metal, and for women, it is nine pounds.  What you have to do is hold the ball underneath your chin with your elbow towards the sky.  Then, when you throw it, you keep your hand facing the right (or left if you are left-handed).  You start bent backward to get momentum, then propel yourself forward. For javelin, you have to hold the back of the grips.  You then have to hold the javelin with your wrist bent over the top.  You move backward like you do with a shot put, and again propel yourself forward, when finishing, your hand should be straight up over your head.  For discus, you grip the edge of the disc just barely and place your thumb over the top and keep it flat.  You again bring your body back and swing your arm up, then release, while keeping the thumb down.

Thanks for reading!