40 years ago the idea of disabled people doing sport was never heard of. But when the annual games for the disabled were started at Stoke Mandeville, England in 1948 by Sir Ludwing Guttmann, the situation began to change.
Sir Ludwing Guttmann, who had been driven to England in 1939 from Nazi Germany, had been asked by the British government to set up an injuries center at Stoke Mandeville Hospital near London. His ideas about treating injuries included sport for the disabled.
In the first games just two teams of injured soldiers took part. The next year, 1949, five teams took part. From those beginnings, things have developed fast. Teams now come from abroad to Stoke Mandeville every year. In 1960 the first Olympics for the Disabled were held in Rome. Now, every four years the Olympic Games for the Disabled are held, if possible, in the same place as the normal Olympic Games although they are organized separately. In other years Games for the Disabled are still held at Stoke Mandeville. In the 1984 wheelchair Olympic Games, 1064 wheelchair athletes from about 40 countries took part. Unfortunately, they were held at Stoke Mandeville and not in Los Angeles, along with other Olympics.
The Games have been a great success in promoting international friendship and understanding, and in proving that being disabled does not mean you can’t enjoy sport. One small source of disappointment for those who organize and take part in the games, however, has been the unwillingness of the International Olympic Committee to include disabled events at the Olympic Games for the able-bodied.
Perhaps a few more years are still needed to convince those fortunate enough not to be disabled that their disabled fellow athletes should not be excluded.
Passage 1
It is no secret among athletes that in order to improve performance you’ve got to work hard.
However, hard training breaks you down and makes you weaker, it is rest that makes you stronger.
Improvement only occurs during the rest period following hard training. This adaptation is accomplished by improving efficiency of the heart and certain systems within the muscle cells.
During recovery periods these systems build to greater levels to compensate for the stress that you have applied. The result is that you are now at a higher level of performance.
If sufficient rest is not included in a training program, imbalance between excess training and inadequate rest will occur, and performance will decline. The “overtraining syndrome (综合症)” is the name given to the collection of emotional, behavioral, and physical symptoms due to overtraining that has persisted for weeks to months. It is marked by cumulative exhaustion that persists even after recovery periods.
The most common symptom is fatigue. This may limit workouts and may be present at rest. The athletes may also become moody, easily imitated, have altered sleep patterns, become depressed, or lose the competitive desire and enthusiasm for the sport. Some will report decreased appetite and weight loss. Physical symptoms include persistent muscular soreness, increased frequency of viral (病毒性的) illnesses, and increased incidence of injuries.
The treatment for the overtraining syndrome is rest. The longer the overtraining has occurred, the more rest required, therefore, early detection is very important. If the overtraining has only occurred for a short period of time (e.g. 3-4 weeks) then interrupting training for 3-5 days is usually sufficient rest. It is important that the factors that lead to overtraining be identified and corrected. Otherwise, the overtraining syndrome is likely to recur. The overtraining syndrome should be considered in any athlete who manifests symptoms of prolonged fatigue and whose performance has leveled off or decreased. It is important to exclude any underlying illness that may be responsible for the fatigue.
