The Paralympics organising committee have belatedly found a bed for Morteza Mehrzadselakjani, the world’s second tallest man at 8ft 1in and a member of the Iranian volleyball team.
Mehrzadselakjani, or Mehrzad as he is known to friends and team-mates, had to sleep on the floor until Tuesday.
In 2016, Mehrzad became the tallest athlete to compete at the Paralympics, when he assisted Iran in winning the sitting volleyball gold medal. The Iranians, with Mehrzad on board, defended that title at Tokyo 2020. His quest for a third gold medal started with Iran’s victory over Ukraine in the preliminary match.
When Mehrzad was 13, he fractured his pelvis in a cycling accident, an injury that limited the growth of his right leg; it is 15cm shorter than the left. To move around, he uses a walking stick and a wheelchair.
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The accident caused him not just physical damage but also depression, as he rarely went out of the house for more than a decade, until he was discovered by coach Hadi Rezaeigarkani. Spiking balls from a sitting height of nearly six feet allows Mehrzad (36) to live up to his nickname of ‘fatal weapon’ for opponents.
Accusations against Ecuador over athletes’ eligibility
The Observatory for Monitoring Public Policy Compliance in Ecuador (ODDE) has accused the country’s sports authorities of allowing non-disabled athletes to compete at the Paralympics in Paris. The ODDE allege that some athletes without disabilities have been able to fraudulently obtain “functional classifications” required to compete in the Games.
These accusations have been reported by the South American outlet Infobae. The ODDE specifically named Santiago David Chango Pilataxi (Ecuadorean Olympic Committee) and Walter Oswaldo Haro Ruiz at the Ecuadorean Federation of Sports for people with intellectual disabilities (FEDEDI) as primary figures.
A coach on the Ecuadorean Paralympic team anonymously disclosed on national television that some of the athletes representing the country do not have the disabilities they claim. The claims have been denied by Patricia Leon, president of the Ecuadorean Paralympic committee who pointed out that “all athletes undergo stringent international scrutiny before they are allowed to compete”.
Hidden meaning
American para-athlete Nick Mayhugh sports a very unusual hair design, in the form of a colourful approximation of his brain scan to draw attention to his cerebral palsy and highlight the so-called “invisible disabilities”.
He explained: “The top of my head looks like a brain. I wanted people to talk about it, to understand that there are disabilities that aren’t visible, and that people like me, even if we look normal, still face challenges.”
There is more to it than the aesthetics as the design reveals “a dead spot” on the right side of his brain that affects the left side of his body, a remnant of the stroke he suffered at birth.
Sprinting Scot
Scottish wheelchair racer Sammi Kinghorn will be hoping to demonstrate her remarkable range and become the first non-Chinese athlete to win the T53 100m title since Tanni Grey-Thompson triumphed in Athens in 2004.
Kinghorn secured her second silver in the women’s T54 1,500m on Tuesday, having also finished second in the 800m on Sunday. “Who would have thought a sprinter would get a medal over 1,500m? I certainly did not,” said Kinghorn, who has two World Championship golds to her name in the 100m, including one in Paris last year.
In words
“It’s the place in the world where I feel the least disabled. I don’t have to go on Google Maps and zoom to see if there are stairs wherever I’m going. I don’t need to figure out whether I can go to the toilet because I know. And if the world could be like the Paralympic village, it would be a better place for all of us.” – Norway para rower Birgit Skarstein.
In numbers
7 – The number of Paralympic medals that Irish cyclist Katie-George Dunlevy has won; four gold and three silver.
