Anyone who remembers Oscar Pistorius (before his crime), the real one << Blade Runner >> multi-paralympic medalist who showed the world how to run with two strange carbon commas for legs, should want to know more about Alexis Hanquinquant's blade. For the French para-triathlete, gold medalist at the Tokyo Games, Airbus has in fact aligned all the numerical calculations wanted in order to obtain a shock prosthesis. A device that matches the three swirling red-blue-green agitos, the logo symbol of the Paris Paralympic Games, which begin on August 28.
"The mind in motion"
After the excitement of the Olympic Games, eyes will turn to disabled athletes, with carbon prostheses, wheelchairs and also race guides, such as Joachim Berland alongside the French sprinter Tresor Makunda. Twelve days to follow new exploits of the highest level. "The mind in motion", according to the motto of these Games, will it manifest itself? The spirit of the champion, certainly. But we must also take into account that of those close to them, of the coaches, of the supporters and, beyond that, of society as a whole.
As scientist Valerie Delattre, who launched the discipline of"archaeology of disability", France today being a pilot country in this field, “disability is a cursor.” After analyzing a plethora of data dating back to the Paleolithic, the archaeo-anthropologist can affirm that "When a society is doing well, it takes care of its vulnerable members. But when it tightens up, tightens on itself - because of a virus, a war, etc., and these vulnerable people become useless mouths, burdens...". (See the video below and the box below).
Proof that "Man is not always a wolf to man", here are these two double tombs, 100,000 years old, found in Qafzeh (Israel). In both of them, the presence of a failing child was discovered, certainly suffering from infantile paralysis and who died around the age of ten, with an adult lying next to him. Proof that the crippled child had been raised until this advanced age and not eliminated in the name of a certain eugenics, then accompanied until death.
The reindeer hunters passed through the…
33,000 years ago, reindeer hunters began to settle at the foot of the cliff of Les Eyzies (Dordogne), leaving flints discovered for the first time in 1880 by Martial Pataud in the basement of his farm. Hence the name "Abri Pataud" later given to these places by prehistorians.
Excavated over a thickness of more than 9 metres, the sediments have yielded countless flint tools and weapons, bones, remains of meals, burials, etc. reindeer hunters having succeeded one another there for more than 15,000 years. This spectacular shelter can now host conferences, such as those organised in July-August 2024 with the National Museum of Prehistory and the National Museum of Natural History.
In this Olympic year 2024, after Jean-Francois Toussaint (Paris Cite University, member of the IPCC) who questioned << What are the limits to human adaptation capacities? >>, Valerie Delattre (Inrap archeo-anthropologist, UMR 6298 ARTeHIS – University of Burgundy) held a public conference on August 13 on the theme << Amputate, repair and equip in societies of the past >>, at which Science and Future Was able to assist.
Please note that the << Prehistory Marathon >> offered by the National Museum of Prehistory continues at the end of August and during the month of September.
Information online. Tel. 05 53 06 45 45
How will the champions be viewed in competition until September 8? What kind of enthusiasm is manifested? For the record, we will recall that the "catch-all word" Handicap comes from the English << Hand in cap >> (hand in the hat), a game from four centuries ago, later recovered by the horse racing world and its bookmakers. Wanting to keep all the suspense in horse racing, the latter decided to carry weights to make the fastest horses heavier.
Disability is therefore, originally, what "penalizes the best" – golf players and its points system in fair competitions know the song. Something to think about during these Paralympic Games.
Declare your love for the champions
Officially established since 1960, they will obviously allow to glorify modern technical advances, carbon blades and high-tech wheelchairs - 12 sports (wheelchair rugby, wheelchair fencing, wheelchair basketball etc.) out of the 22 present use them, 9 of which have been specially studied in the research labs associated with the Paraperf program from Insep (National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance).
In fact, humans have been cultivating their ingenuity for a long time, having made for themselves or their peers canes and crutches of all kinds in case of deficient hips, knees or feet. But the spirit in motion goes further. If the prosthesis is visible, the time for exchange between athletes and others, often less ostentatious, is crucial. It is he who gives courage and determination, who advocates equality, whether one is an amputee, a broken face or an albino and visually impaired person like the sprinter Nantenin Keita. To the public rejecting exclusion to declare its love for the champions.
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