A 1980 skiing accident left U.S. Army veteran Steve Kirk with a dislocated neck and little use of his arms or legs. Almost forty years later, Kirk was competing at last week’s National Veterans Wheelchair Games. Kirk took part in the air rifle competition thanks to a gun that is triggered by his breath.
A sharp inhale from Kirk is enough to fire his gun. (Inhaling is used instead of exhaling as the trigger, because exhaling can happen accidentally.) The solution, customized by the Orlando VA Medical Center, follows similar adaptations for disabled athletes competing in other sports—repurposing their movements for the desired effect.
“It allows them the opportunity to forget that they are disabled for a little while,” said Christina Lafex, a recreational therapist and coordinator at Orlando VA, in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel. “Otherwise, they might get quiet and dig into a cocoon and just stay there.”
This year’s games (which ran from Jul. 30 to Aug. 4) featured an exhibition space dedicated to adaptive technology products. For many like Kirk, technology has opened up a whole new competitive avenue.
“If [the accident] happened today, I’d probably be able to walk again at some point,” Kirk told the Sentinel. “But it’s not about staying home and feeling sorry for yourself.”
SportTechie Takeaway
Technology has allowed disabled athletes to compete in ways that they otherwise couldn’t. Ahead of this year’s Winter Paralympics, engineers at Toyota Motorsport helped Paralympian Andrea Eskau redesign her sled. Toyota was able to create a significant weight reduction in the sled. In PyeongChang, the German parathlete added two gold medals, two silvers and one bronze to her already impressive haul from six different Summer and Winter Games.