EXTREMITY GAMES

Loi Ho gets ready for a rock climbing competition. She does push-ups and pull-ups, she trains very hard, just like any athlete. There is something different with her body though; she doesn’t have her right leg. She was born with a deficiency that stopped her right leg developing. But that doesn’t stop her from doing a sport that she loves.

The Extremity Games is a competition for people with an amputation or limb difference. Hundreds of athletes take part in extreme sports competitions. These include rock climbing, mountain biking, motocross racing, martial arts, skateboarding, wakeboarding, kayaking and even surfing.

The Extremity Games was founded by College Park Industries, which is a company that makes prosthetic ankles and feet. Beth Geno, the co-founder of Games said that more people asked for prostheses that they could use during extreme sports. Some of them even wanted to take part in the Paralympics and they wanted artificial limbs, which were stronger and lighter. After learning that most customers do sports like skateboarding or mountain climbing the company decided to have an event for those who wanted to take part in competitions. That is how the Extremity Games started. That was a very good decision as participation in extreme sports is a rising trend among younger amputees. It gives them a chance to be recognised as a sportsperson because these adventure sports competitions are often televised on sports channels. The other reason why they are becoming more popular is that prostheses today are made with lighter and stronger materials than in the past. In addition, they are now available with a variety of parts that can be adapted for many activities. For example, there are special adapters to help amputee people shift gears on a mountain bike. They also can purchase specially designed limbs for almost every sport now.

Some athletes prefer to compete without prostheses at all. Loi Ho says that every time she moves one of her legs up to climb her prosthesis moves. That is why she prefers to climb without them. She then says, “As an amputee, you just have to find your own way of getting through it.”