A familiar face to the morning crew at our pool will compete
on the world stage. Alice Luo will compete in the
London 2012 Paralympic Games,
which is the second-largest sporting event in the world, second only to the
Olympics.
Alice trains at Chehalem Aquatic and Fitness Center with her
coach Mark Maxwell, who was head coach for the U.S. Paralympic Swim Team in
1996 and 2000.
Alice has been an elite swimming competitor off and on her
entire life. She first competed as a Taiwanese Olympian. Her life changed in
2002 when an injury left her partially paralyzed, but it was only a matter of
time until her champion nature had her competing at elite levels again – and winning.
She competed in the 2008 Paralympics in Bejing, set a world
record in 2009 in multiple events in Rio in the Short Course Worlds event, and
in 2010 she won a gold medal in the 100-yard breast stroke at the Asian Games
in China. That same year, she took two sixth places in the Long Course Worlds event
in the Netherlands.
“I love to play in the water,” says Alice. “I like to win.”
Information from the
London 2012 Paralympic Games website
Featuring a total of 600 athletes competing for 148 medals,
Swimming will be the second biggest competition at the London 2012 Paralympic
Games.
The classification for the sport includes categories for
athletes with visual impairments, physical impairments and intellectual
impairments They use the four basic strokes: Freestyle, Backstroke,
Breaststroke and Butterfly.
Classification is a unique element of Paralympic sports,
intended to ensure fair competition. As each sport at the Paralympic Games
requires different skills and competencies, the impact of impairment on the
performance of the athletes varies. That’s why each sport has its own unique
classification rules.
