Fitness on Wheels – Sports and Games for Paraplegic People

Basketball and Golf are not out of bounds for wheelchair users – and many wheelchair athletes are even better than their walking counterparts. In most marathons, the fastest wheelchair drivers reach the target line 50 minutes earlier than the best runners. 01/02/2004

Wheelchair basketball is a fast game; © Messe Düsseldorf

The competitive athletes with their specially adapted sports equipment prove their power and fighting spirit during the Paralympic Games, and each year more sports are becoming available to the ordinary wheelchair driver.

On many golf courses, wheelchairs are still an unusual sight, as many club care more about the quality of the green than about the integrative power of sports. But with the help of electric golf carts and specially created driving and standing devices, even paralysed people are able to enjoy a game on the driving range and putting green.

And paralysed people are not immune against the fascination of Asian martial arts, as the growing number of wheelchair Karate-teams prove. Their members use not just the usual beating and throwing techniques, but turn the wheelchair itself into a weapon.

In most wheelchair sports competitions, the individual degree of disability of each team member is taken into account. E.g. in wheelchair basketball, where a detailed medical classification system guarantees exciting matches between equally strong teams. In the German national league, this systems allows even players without any disability to take part in the games.

As most of the other recreational athletes, the wheelchair sportsmen are in it for the fun – and the positive effects on their health. And these are confirmed by many scientific studies: Wheelchair sports improves not just the cardio-vascular system of paraplegic people, but are also the function of the bladder and the kidneys. In addition to that, the skin of wheelchair athletes receives a higher supply of blood and is thus less prone for decubitus ulcers. For many paraplegic people, sports has even a positive effect on spinal spastics.