The Paralympic Games: Empowerment or Side Show? by Keith Gilbert & Otto J. Schantz

The Paralympic Games: Empowerment or Side Show? by Keith Gilbert & Otto J. Schantz

Author:Keith Gilbert & Otto J. Schantz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2008-11-15T00:00:00+00:00


12 P ARALYMPIC COMPETITION OR TECHNICAL SHOWDOWN?

Katrin Koenen

INTRODUCTION

Athens, Greece, September 2004: The Paralympics are a great success - 4.000 athletes from 136 countries being judged in 19 types of sports; 72.000 visitors at the splendid opening ceremony, world records, emotions and a noticeably increased media interest. Also Otto Bock [the company which this chapter is really about] is breaking all records: 2299 deployments during eleven days of competitions; 107 technicians from 25 countries helping athletes from all disciplines, regardless of whether a carbon spring foot, a modular knee joint or a wheelchair is broken or just needing a final adjustment. Major deployments are done by the orthopaedic technicians at the Otto Bock Service Centre in the Paralympics village, while smaller teams are present on all sites of competitions. This statement and the figures, however, can possibly raise the question, as to whether the athletic performances and records are more dependent on technical devices rather than on constant and intense training, or on the strong will and motivation of the athletes. For example, the 200 meter race for male below-knee amputees that a double below-knee amputee, Oscar Pistorius, finished with a new sensational world record of 21.97 sec, could support this thought. Indeed, it seems that the imagination of a technical showdown is growing with the improvement of the performances and the extension of the development of prostheses and wheelchairs in the competing countries.

Throughout this chapter we will try to find an answer to this question by discussing the development of technical service at the Paralympics, its impact and its justification. This will be achieved by giving an overview of the history of Otto Bock [the company] and its relation to the Paralympics and also by illustrating, what the Service Centre and the work done by the technicians is all about, the increase of technical service, its procedure and its meaning to the athletes will be revealed.

Now, first of all: Who or what is Otto Bock?

THE OTTO BOCK COMPANY GROUP

“Otto Bock” is a group of companies with its headquarters in the ancient town of Duderstadt, Germany. Under the Otto Bock Holding GmbH Co. KG umbrella, the group subdivides into three core sections: a) Otto Bock HealthCare, b) Otto Bock Kunststoff (Foam Plastics), c) Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In 1919, i.e. after World War I, Otto Bock, an orthopaedic technician, began what turned into a unique success, by founding a company in Berlin that would supply thousands of war victims with prosthetic and orthotic devices. He achieved this because it was impossible to meet the demand for these devices with traditional methods of craftsmanship, Otto Bock manufactured prosthetic components in serial production and delivered them directly to the local prosthetists, thus laying the foundation for the orthopaedic industry, now the Otto Bock HealthCare section. From the very beginning Otto Bock was interested in using new materials for manufacturing and even tested and used aluminium for prosthetic components as early as the 1930s. Since the preferred type of wood, poplar, was difficult



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