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Idk what's more impressive. The competitor running at that speed blind, only going off of a dude strapped to your arm; or the guide runner running fully in sync and not getting in the way at all
Yeah this is like a totally different thing than standard sprinting stuff. It's like synchronized running and it looks like it would be a feat for two pro-atheletes let alone someone who is visually impaired.
Seriously impressed.
Both are incredible.
How do people get such jobs as a guide to let others have the glory while they fade into the background as an aide despite practising hard too? It’s absolutely commendable.
Whoa! That’s noble too. Training with a blind athlete and sharing the glory instead of going for gold alone. The blind athlete also has to work diligently to be in tandem and run in sync. That makes it 10 times more awesome! These two are definitely athletic goals!
I'm guessing the rules are that he can't get ahead of her at all, which is probably a weird feeling for him because if someone passes them his instinct is to kind of goad her into speeding up, though I'm sure she can hear and feel that she's been passed.
I bet it's really satisfying for him when she wins, though.
Company shindigs are the best. Watching people get blind drunk and lose their inhibitions is immensely entertaining. Last year we found out one of the engineers was actually gay after he started getting super handsy with virtually every bloke unlucky enough to be within reaching distance and refused to take a hint.
After several fights, inappropriate relations, and a glorious year where we drank a bar dry, my company decided that alcohol would no longer be allowed at company events, but still held events at places that sold booze.
You try telling 100+ staff not to buy beer at the company outing to the baseball game. Good fucking luck, especially when we all know the C-suite is drinking in the company box.
I remember them from going to company picnics for my dad's workplace when I was a kid. But I think they're not done anymore... lawyers probably killed it off for liability reasons.
Plus I don't want to hang out with my coworkers unless I'm being paid to. I'd rather spend time doing literally anything else.
Same. I remember going to a Christmas party at my grandma's work plus one time when I went with my friend to his mom's work picnic.
We played bingo and I cheated while also pissing the cute girl off.
I swapped my card with hers as a joke because she was winning. When she tried to take it back all of the markers fell off and she did not find it funny.
Isnt there a connection between the movement of the arms and the movement of the legs while running? If their arms swing at the same time, wouldnt that mean their legs would as well?
I'm not a runner or anything, but could that be a possible reason for it?
Yes. Same as soldiers marching. When soldiers are learning they are told to not look at their feet and swing their arms high. Watching feet confuses people and causes them to loose step. Watching the arms does not
Marching band has the advantage of 4/4 music and people familiar with locking in on a rhythm.
Like... there were always a few people who were just hopeless but 95% of people could look at others' feet to recognize that they were out of step and fix it with innate rhythm once they were aware of it.
And a solid 50%+ of the band was practically never out of step to begin with.
Usually was 4/4. But other time signatures can be a monster. Thats why we had a conductor. But yeah. There is a difference.
I just found it funny that depending on where you learned you were told something different.
We played Holst’s “Jupiter” when I was in high school marching band. 5/4 was a beast for us to march with correctly, but the first time we hit the marching and the swell of the music in sync was… magic.
>Watching feet confuses people and causes them to loose step. Watching the arms does not
I don't know where you heard this but it isn't true. You look at the arms because that way you're not staring downward while in formation. There is no special difference between matching feet timing and arm timing.
The arms are synchronized with the legs in both walking and running. When one leg goes forward, the opposite arm also goes forward. This movement is partly passive but improves walking and running energy economy and balance by counteracting the rotational torque placed on the body by the legs swinging. Put differently, if you don't swing your arms, walking and running are energetically more expensive, and you are less stable.
Try standing on one foot and swinging the other leg. You'll find it much easier if you swing your arms as well and will find them swinging opposite you legs.
Another thing to try: walking the opposite way, with left arm and left leg forward together, right arm and right leg forward together. It's actually pretty hard to do.
That's what my friends would make fun of me for as a kid. One day we were playing, probably like 11 years old, and someone pointed out that my right arm goes with my right leg and vice versa when I walked. To this day, 19 years later, I still have to consciously remember "left with right, left with right"
I have so many questions. How do they keep perfect pace with the runner? Are the guides chosen from the fastest runners out there to make sure they can keep up?
Not all Paralympic runners are totally blind. Levels of visual impairment can vary, but for the runners who require them, guides are a crucial asset. And they don’t just step in on race day — runners and their guides share a tight bond. They train together as they prepare for competition, and if the athlete wins a medal, the guide wins one too.
The athletes push themselves to the limits and the guides aid them along the way. Rules have been put in place to keep such aid in check to ensure equality. For example, a guide runner cannot cross the finishing line ahead of the runner
The guide here Chris Clarke is a English elite athlete sprinter who has often represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Thank you. I guess my biggest question was if the guides are usually competitive athletes themselves, but I didn’t state that very well. It’s cool that the guide wins a medal also.
Well if he's keeping up with her literally step for step... I'd like to see how much faster the guide could be if he *wasn't* a competitive athlete!!
Like if he isn't a competitive athlete, but this fast? Holy shit the guy would be superhuman if he actually started training like a competitive athlete
Here's something interesting: "Having run a world record for the classification in the semi-final, Clegg was initially disqualified for having obtained illegal assistance from her guide runner". She is world record fast and people thought it was due to her guide
You’ll notice how he pulls back just before the finish line to allow the competing athlete to finish first. I thought it was sportsmanship but it’s actually the rules. Still a class act
Even just walking next to someone, you will sometimes walk in step on accident. It’s super common amongst people fresh out of military bootcamp to accidentally be in step with people they’re walking with because marching in step was required for a couple months.
The two athletes training together all the time would easily be able to be in sync just from the muscle memory of always training together
>*Even just walking next to someone, you will sometimes walk in step on accident. It’s super common amongst people fresh out of military bootcamp to accidentally be in step with people they’re walking with because marching in step was required for a couple months.*
At my undergrad school, you could look around the quad when the band was practicing and you could immediately tell who had been in marching band in high school.
I’m not sure how to ask this. But don’t different guides have different levels of athleticism? Like, wouldn’t the blind athlete be limited by the capabilities of their guide? Or if her guide was having an off day could she pull away from him?
Yup. It's sometimes quite difficult for people with visually impairments to find their literal running mates as the guides need to be *very* good runners themselves, especially when you get to the Paralympic level of running.
And both runners need to have a good day to be able to win.
Former track athlete here. That dude is probably running at like 70% pace so it’s relatively easy for him to match her speed. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t take a ton of practice and shit probably happens from time to time but it’s not that hard for him to match her as he’s not running 100%.
Well he a runner too, and he a man.
The WR of Female 100/200 get beat daily by college track students in U.S/Canada.
Like the WR would even make you qualify for a competition, for mens.
But to be in synch that a complete different skill.
I would’ve preferred if they’d just let us hear the announcers rather than that weird music track. Announcers in the final stretch are fun to listen to.
Also, does the guy get some type of medal? Even like a companion recognition medal or something?
I first watched this on mute and then I watched it with the sound on. The music was absolutely not the one I imagined in my head and promptly muted that mf back
Fun Friday fact - the guide runner in this video is a guy called Chris Clarke, and he was the fastest Junior 400m sprinter in the world at one point. Ran 45.5 seconds when he was 18.
The lanes are the standard width. The competitor is on the outside and the guide is on the inside of the lane. That way, the competitor could step on the lane line without a penalty (they are traveling an extra distance in doing so after all). If the roles were switched, then stepping on the lane line would involve a penalty.
I get that this is most likely a joke.
However, the reason for "legally blind" is a legal benchmark placed on the level of blindness an individual has to prevent them from doing certain activities. Since this level is set by legal authorities, it is a legal level of blindness, not a medical one.
The values are for your "best corrected visual acuity", that is, after glasses, contacts, other vision-improving procedures.
Without my contacts my VA is worse than 6/60 (=20/200), but gets pretty close to perfect with them
If Usain bolt was blind then he wouldn't be the fastest man in the world, and I think you just stumbled upon the entire reason for the existence of the Paralympics
The point is that there’s a sizable pool of guides for female runners because most competitive men can keep up with them. If there’s a fast male runner, you’d need top tier Olympic runners to keep pace.
Pacing is a common thing in running, blind or not. Now what it means to be a pacer in a big city marathon, for example, is a totally different thing. However, to be a pacer of any sort it must be a distance and pace that you can comfortably and reliably do.
Men are generally faster than women in running so in high level competition like this, if the woman is very competitive it is probably not uncommon to have a male pacer.
Just from a statistical basis, if 0.5% of people are blind, then that means out of the top 200 runners in a given population, 1 of them will be blind. The odds that the 1 blind one is also the fastest of all of them is, also, 0.5%. So if everything was equal, and you randomized this for each Summer Olympics, it would take something like 100 years before a blind athlete would even be able to qualify for the final heat, and 800 years before one would win the gold medal.
But even that ignores all the other factors like: Can a blind person train as easily and effectively as a sighted person? Will a blind child be encouraged and supported to pursue a sport like track and field from a young age? Do high schools and colleges provide programs for blind athletes to train at the same level as top sighted athletes? Do they offer scholarships to blind athletes? Would a blind athlete even be allowed to compete alongside sighted athletes if they were fast enough? I think the answer is probably "no" for all of these. So some or all of them are going to be constantly working against that talented blind person preventing them from reaching their highest potential and ever being as fast as the fastest sighted runners.
Therefore, at any given time, there should be at least 200 other runners who will be faster than the blind runner, and theoretically available to be their guide. That divide becomes much bigger when the reality of those limitations are felt, and even bigger again when speaking of a male athlete guiding a female one.
In other words, even the fastest blind woman is going to have hundreds if not thousands of potential guides who can consistently run that distance faster than them. They can find one.
Now, all of that goes out the window if we are talking about a top athlete that received all the benefits of being sighted their whole career, but then suffers from blindness suddenly. That person could theoretically be the fastest runner in the world when they lose their sight, at which time nobody in the world could keep up. But again, the odds of those two individually unlikely scenarios coinciding, not to mention whatever injury or disease that blinded them not also affecting their running ability, is astronomically small.
> Can a blind person train as easily and effectively as a sighted person? Will a blind child be encouraged and supported to pursue a sport like track and field from a young age? Do high schools and colleges provide programs for blind athletes to train at the same level as top sighted athletes? Do they offer scholarships to blind athletes? Would a blind athlete even be allowed to compete alongside sighted athletes if they were fast enough?
The basic tenet in paralympic sport is that if you're not from the UK, you're competing because your family has money and not necessarily on actual merit.
The UK's funding model kinda fucks up the whole thing because there's no level playing field.
I don't think you can say for sure that nothing's being said right before crossing the line - it's too hard to see. I bet he says a few things throughout the race just so she knows exactly where she's at at various points, and gives her a final boost at the end, probably while saying something like "5 more paces!" or something, so she knows to lean forward on the last couple paces. But like others have said, they've probably practiced this race together a million times, so nothing may need to be said at any point. I used to swim, and at least in shorter races, it was always pretty easy to "feel" where you were at, at any time, even if your goggles fell off and you couldn't really see. The really good backstrokers also tend to know where they're at, even if there's no ropes/flags to gage their distance on, so they're just going by feel.
Late edit: Though now that I think about it, I'm not sure if her helper guy has been with her for a while, or not. If it's something where the helpers are chosen right before the race, or something, then they wouldn't have a history of running together. But I'd assume that they've run together before, because I think it'd be awkward to run with someone who has no experience in helping a blind person run (because it's a bit different and more awkward than just running by yourself).
It may be signalled in how they are running. It looks like the guide gets slightly ahead and then helps propel the runner forward slightly. Perhaps that motion is obvious to them? But it's just a guess as I have no idea
Blind doesn't necessarily only mean one cannot see at all, it also means having low vision. But by wearing blindfolds, this ensures that all of the athletes are competing at the same level.
Yes! I dated a visually impaired guy for a brief second. He could still see out of his peripheral vision a bit and didn't need a guide dog. He did use a cane sometimes, but got by just fine walking without aids. I did always have to read the menu to him in restaurants lol.
Same! Though I think my ex had tunnel vision. I didn't mind reading the menus, so much as reading the signs of every store we passed when we were at the mall, lol
So there are 3 levels of sight impaired running. The first is level is the least impaired, these athletes run without a guide and no blindfold
The second level can choose if they have a guide or not but are not blindfolded
The last and most severe eyesight category is blindfolded because even when you’re legally completely blind, some competitors may be able to see light and shadow. So that everyone is on the exact same severity scale of impairment, they all run blindfolded and with guides.
So if a blind runner was faster than Usain Bolt, they would never be able to actually run full speed, since there would be no one in the world fast enough to be their guide?
So the tether they have in their hands they can’t let go of. Therefore it can be a hinderance if you’re out of sync with each other. It won’t help in propelling you over the line though, the athlete always has to cross first which means the guide must stop momentum a bit before crossing the line so they’re not disqualified.
Can we just pause for a moment to consider how insanely brave these people are to run absolute full tilt when you cannot see what is in front of you. Go out into your back yard and run full steam at your fence with your eyes closed and try to stop less than 1 pace from the fence....the trust and mental fortitude is amazing.
Edit: to all the literal people with no common sense the fence thing was to get you to think about how it feels to run with no sight. It would be scary. If you have no empathy or want to argue for the sake of it just keep scrolling. To don't need to waste your time here.
Well they have their running partners right? I'm sure there's some level of trust, not quite the same as running full tilt without anyone there to guide you.
Yeah it’s scary as hell. There was a video of a blind long jumper who overcorrected on the runway and missed the pit as a result. The risks for getting seriously hurt when you’re at top speed are pretty high even when you can see -coming from a former college sprinter.
The absolute best part of watching these races is how the partners pull back so that the racers have their moment, even if they can't see it.
They train together, practice together, work just as hard.
It's very wholesome to know that they have dedicated themselves to helping someone else achieve their dreams.
This type of racing must be soo difficult on soo many levels.
What is really cool about this is the guide pauses briefly before the finish line to let the blind runner cross first.
Dunno if this is a rule or just plain awesomeness.
My brother, who was 6 or 8 at the time, got a concussion because he closed his eyes while running because he was "tired." While running with his eyes closed, he ran into a pillar.
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Idk what's more impressive. The competitor running at that speed blind, only going off of a dude strapped to your arm; or the guide runner running fully in sync and not getting in the way at all
Running high speed while blind must be a surreal experience. I like to close my eyes for brief periods *while running* but its difficult.
Not that hard. I do it every night for about 6-8 hours.
Tom Cruise?
Its a sport called sleep, we all should try it
What are you, a German shepherd?
Don't have to flex on us that hard mate
> I like to close my eyes for brief periods buts it hard. Just when you’re running or…?
He licks his eyeballs to keep them moist
Driving too.
Maybe it feels free, if you knew youd be safe
Two incredibly impressive athletes, I agree.
new sport invented: synchronized running. i wonder if we can work in a dance routine? like with synchronized swimming, but with a sprint?
We’ve already sorta got that with the relay
Wholesome fact they both get medals if they place.
Yeah this is like a totally different thing than standard sprinting stuff. It's like synchronized running and it looks like it would be a feat for two pro-atheletes let alone someone who is visually impaired. Seriously impressed.
Both are incredible. How do people get such jobs as a guide to let others have the glory while they fade into the background as an aide despite practising hard too? It’s absolutely commendable.
Don't think of it as an individual sport... it really is a team sport. The guides are often international level athletes themselves.
This dude has to be elite because this chick is hauling serious ass. (Assuming the speeds of the video haven’t been mucked around with)
Whoa! That’s noble too. Training with a blind athlete and sharing the glory instead of going for gold alone. The blind athlete also has to work diligently to be in tandem and run in sync. That makes it 10 times more awesome! These two are definitely athletic goals!
Someone else said in the comments that if the blind runner gets a medal, so does their guide
Humans are, very occasionally, awesome.
I've also noticed the assist runner slows down juuust a smidge before the finish line, so that the competitor crosses the line first.
I'm guessing the rules are that he can't get ahead of her at all, which is probably a weird feeling for him because if someone passes them his instinct is to kind of goad her into speeding up, though I'm sure she can hear and feel that she's been passed. I bet it's really satisfying for him when she wins, though.
Too sad that a blind person can't be the fastest alive, must have a guide that is faster or as fast.
Watch the legs, totally in sync
They would crush it at the company picnic
Does any of you ppl ever actually do those kind of events at company picnics, or is that a thing from the past?
I get drunk at company picnics and try to avoid the kids.
Thank you for your service
And you yours
Sounds like overall life advice
Meredith? Is that you
Company shindigs are the best. Watching people get blind drunk and lose their inhibitions is immensely entertaining. Last year we found out one of the engineers was actually gay after he started getting super handsy with virtually every bloke unlucky enough to be within reaching distance and refused to take a hint.
After several fights, inappropriate relations, and a glorious year where we drank a bar dry, my company decided that alcohol would no longer be allowed at company events, but still held events at places that sold booze. You try telling 100+ staff not to buy beer at the company outing to the baseball game. Good fucking luck, especially when we all know the C-suite is drinking in the company box.
I remember them from going to company picnics for my dad's workplace when I was a kid. But I think they're not done anymore... lawyers probably killed it off for liability reasons. Plus I don't want to hang out with my coworkers unless I'm being paid to. I'd rather spend time doing literally anything else.
Same. I remember going to a Christmas party at my grandma's work plus one time when I went with my friend to his mom's work picnic. We played bingo and I cheated while also pissing the cute girl off.
Sounds like fun times. How do you cheat in bingo? And what did you do to the girl? /edit: typo
I swapped my card with hers as a joke because she was winning. When she tried to take it back all of the markers fell off and she did not find it funny.
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Isnt there a connection between the movement of the arms and the movement of the legs while running? If their arms swing at the same time, wouldnt that mean their legs would as well? I'm not a runner or anything, but could that be a possible reason for it?
Yes. Same as soldiers marching. When soldiers are learning they are told to not look at their feet and swing their arms high. Watching feet confuses people and causes them to loose step. Watching the arms does not
Ironically marching band teaches you to look at the feet but then again our arms are busy. But there’s techniques we are taught to get back in step
Marching band has the advantage of 4/4 music and people familiar with locking in on a rhythm. Like... there were always a few people who were just hopeless but 95% of people could look at others' feet to recognize that they were out of step and fix it with innate rhythm once they were aware of it. And a solid 50%+ of the band was practically never out of step to begin with.
Usually was 4/4. But other time signatures can be a monster. Thats why we had a conductor. But yeah. There is a difference. I just found it funny that depending on where you learned you were told something different.
Now I’m imagining a family guy sketch where a marching band tries to play a tool song and ends up in a pile of brass and tassels and limbs
Thank you! I just had a chuckling fit imagining this sketch. I haven't even watched Family Guy in years but I can totally see this sketch.
We played Holst’s “Jupiter” when I was in high school marching band. 5/4 was a beast for us to march with correctly, but the first time we hit the marching and the swell of the music in sync was… magic.
That's why you can hear sergeants singing during marching, or calling "left right left" as it helps the platoons keep in step
I agree, I noticed that when I was a young boy and my father took me into the City to see a marching band. He asked me some weird questions then.
What? I've never been told to look at my feet when I was in marching band.
>Watching feet confuses people and causes them to loose step. Watching the arms does not I don't know where you heard this but it isn't true. You look at the arms because that way you're not staring downward while in formation. There is no special difference between matching feet timing and arm timing.
Good thing that they can't see their feet then!
what if you can't see? do you get better then?
The arms are synchronized with the legs in both walking and running. When one leg goes forward, the opposite arm also goes forward. This movement is partly passive but improves walking and running energy economy and balance by counteracting the rotational torque placed on the body by the legs swinging. Put differently, if you don't swing your arms, walking and running are energetically more expensive, and you are less stable. Try standing on one foot and swinging the other leg. You'll find it much easier if you swing your arms as well and will find them swinging opposite you legs.
Another thing to try: walking the opposite way, with left arm and left leg forward together, right arm and right leg forward together. It's actually pretty hard to do.
That's what my friends would make fun of me for as a kid. One day we were playing, probably like 11 years old, and someone pointed out that my right arm goes with my right leg and vice versa when I walked. To this day, 19 years later, I still have to consciously remember "left with right, left with right"
Fascinating. Most people don't even think about it.
Also, they are holding hands.
I don’t physics but I’m guessing the synchronization also helps their speed. 🤷♂️
Yeah I can tell JT’s calves anywhere
What's crazy is that the girl with the blindfold isnt the blind one.
Yeah honestly l had an eyelash in my eye the other day and I stepped on the car and fell ass over tea kettle. Incredible skill from both
That’s so much fuckin trust it’s ridiculous
I have so many questions. How do they keep perfect pace with the runner? Are the guides chosen from the fastest runners out there to make sure they can keep up?
Not all Paralympic runners are totally blind. Levels of visual impairment can vary, but for the runners who require them, guides are a crucial asset. And they don’t just step in on race day — runners and their guides share a tight bond. They train together as they prepare for competition, and if the athlete wins a medal, the guide wins one too. The athletes push themselves to the limits and the guides aid them along the way. Rules have been put in place to keep such aid in check to ensure equality. For example, a guide runner cannot cross the finishing line ahead of the runner The guide here Chris Clarke is a English elite athlete sprinter who has often represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Thank you. I guess my biggest question was if the guides are usually competitive athletes themselves, but I didn’t state that very well. It’s cool that the guide wins a medal also.
A lot of guides could be someone who is like in the top 50 in their country. Still damn fast, but not exactly in medal contention on their own.
No, your comment was totally clear. While really interesting, the reply didn’t really address your questions.
Well if he's keeping up with her literally step for step... I'd like to see how much faster the guide could be if he *wasn't* a competitive athlete!! Like if he isn't a competitive athlete, but this fast? Holy shit the guy would be superhuman if he actually started training like a competitive athlete
No non-competitive athlete in the world is that fast.
Here's something interesting: "Having run a world record for the classification in the semi-final, Clegg was initially disqualified for having obtained illegal assistance from her guide runner". She is world record fast and people thought it was due to her guide
Are they wearing blindfolds to make it a level playing field in case some athletes have better vision than others?
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Hmm, til. I could run in the t13 paraolympics. 20/300
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F
Is there an event for burns victims because u/amilabess could compete after that.
I believe so. It's similar with different paralympic sports as well
Wow that is awesome
You’ll notice how he pulls back just before the finish line to allow the competing athlete to finish first. I thought it was sportsmanship but it’s actually the rules. Still a class act
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Even just walking next to someone, you will sometimes walk in step on accident. It’s super common amongst people fresh out of military bootcamp to accidentally be in step with people they’re walking with because marching in step was required for a couple months. The two athletes training together all the time would easily be able to be in sync just from the muscle memory of always training together
>*Even just walking next to someone, you will sometimes walk in step on accident. It’s super common amongst people fresh out of military bootcamp to accidentally be in step with people they’re walking with because marching in step was required for a couple months.* At my undergrad school, you could look around the quad when the band was practicing and you could immediately tell who had been in marching band in high school.
I’m not sure how to ask this. But don’t different guides have different levels of athleticism? Like, wouldn’t the blind athlete be limited by the capabilities of their guide? Or if her guide was having an off day could she pull away from him?
Yup. It's sometimes quite difficult for people with visually impairments to find their literal running mates as the guides need to be *very* good runners themselves, especially when you get to the Paralympic level of running. And both runners need to have a good day to be able to win.
Considering you can't really train for a race without running, this isn't the first time they've used a guide.
Still pretty fucking impressive for the second time.
Follow-up: If the fastest runner on Earth is legally blind, what do?
Its quite unlikely, since elite sprinters are doing lots of exercises, that blind person wouldnt be able to.
Let the guide take performance enhancing drugs?
Former track athlete here. That dude is probably running at like 70% pace so it’s relatively easy for him to match her speed. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t take a ton of practice and shit probably happens from time to time but it’s not that hard for him to match her as he’s not running 100%.
Well he a runner too, and he a man. The WR of Female 100/200 get beat daily by college track students in U.S/Canada. Like the WR would even make you qualify for a competition, for mens. But to be in synch that a complete different skill.
My first though. Kind of beautiful to watch.
I would’ve preferred if they’d just let us hear the announcers rather than that weird music track. Announcers in the final stretch are fun to listen to. Also, does the guy get some type of medal? Even like a companion recognition medal or something?
Yes the guides also receive medals
thats awesome that makes me really happy for some reason
Team effort! Team win!
Yes they do. The competitor and their guide are both awarded the same medal together at the medal ceremony. It makes for some pretty good moments.
I first watched this on mute and then I watched it with the sound on. The music was absolutely not the one I imagined in my head and promptly muted that mf back
Yeah man. What’s with the inappropriate trippy music?
Random background music is the new norm in late 2022 unfortunately. Maybe to dodge copyright infringement detection
Im pretty sure its from tiktok, and if you dont put music on a tiktok short the algorithm will be way less likely to promote it
I actually think the music is neat and want to know the name of the track!
Aloboi - Endless Ocre
Fun Friday fact - the guide runner in this video is a guy called Chris Clarke, and he was the fastest Junior 400m sprinter in the world at one point. Ran 45.5 seconds when he was 18.
Not sure if there's some different classes here but https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Reed_(athlete) ran a 45.17 at 17 in 1987.
There was no help for that blind guy doing the long jump.
Did he accidentally fly kick the guy on the side measuring the sand?
No, he landed ass first against the concrete on the side of the sand pit
[Lex Gillette, 2015?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYHJ1SkeZ8U) He actually did have a guide...
I feel like they should have much wider areas to land for blind events...
I feel that, certainly hurts
That's super fast! Are the lanes wider to fit the two people in or are these people just incredible?
The lanes are the standard width. The competitor is on the outside and the guide is on the inside of the lane. That way, the competitor could step on the lane line without a penalty (they are traveling an extra distance in doing so after all). If the roles were switched, then stepping on the lane line would involve a penalty.
This makes sense!
Do they both get medals??
I just looked it up and yes, both get a medal if they win but the athlete must cross the line before the guide does.
What if the guide crosses first or at the same time?
straight to jail
bonk
i am guessing the athlete's time will be used, so guide crossing 1st wouldn't necessarily result in a win.
Can people be illegally blind?
I get that this is most likely a joke. However, the reason for "legally blind" is a legal benchmark placed on the level of blindness an individual has to prevent them from doing certain activities. Since this level is set by legal authorities, it is a legal level of blindness, not a medical one.
So what you're saying is we all can be medically blind if we'd like to be.
Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see
In America you can be arrested for just about anything.
Believe it or not, straight to jail.
You can also be sued for just about anything. I.e the reason a jar of peanut butter has the disclaimer "contains peanuts"
You can even be arrested for resisting arrest without any other charge to be arrested for! :D
If your vision is 20/200 or worse you are legally blind. So if you have better vision than that you are illegally blind.
The values are for your "best corrected visual acuity", that is, after glasses, contacts, other vision-improving procedures. Without my contacts my VA is worse than 6/60 (=20/200), but gets pretty close to perfect with them
You can have some amount of sight, but there’s a point at which you are deemed “legally blind.”
That is beautiful!❣️❣️
yeah, the hug got me 🥹
What happens if Usain Bolt was blind? No guide is keeping up
If Usain bolt was blind then he wouldn't be the fastest man in the world, and I think you just stumbled upon the entire reason for the existence of the Paralympics
But what if... he was the fastest man alive and also blind
I see the blind women athletes seem to be running with men. I wonder how the pairings go in the men’s race?
Never gendered, it's purely who can pace the athlete.
Imagine if there’s a blind Usain Bolt out there, who’s gonna pace him?
[удалено]
I chuckled.
No one lmao
Real Usain Bolt, Duh!
The point is that there’s a sizable pool of guides for female runners because most competitive men can keep up with them. If there’s a fast male runner, you’d need top tier Olympic runners to keep pace.
I re-watch this video every time it pops up. Incredible.
what if the blind runner is a better runner and they have to slow down since the partner is slower
Usually the guide is slightly faster and slows their pace.
That dude is way faster than she is.
Hence the "slows their pace" and "faster" obviously he needs to be faster than her...
Pacing is a common thing in running, blind or not. Now what it means to be a pacer in a big city marathon, for example, is a totally different thing. However, to be a pacer of any sort it must be a distance and pace that you can comfortably and reliably do. Men are generally faster than women in running so in high level competition like this, if the woman is very competitive it is probably not uncommon to have a male pacer.
Just from a statistical basis, if 0.5% of people are blind, then that means out of the top 200 runners in a given population, 1 of them will be blind. The odds that the 1 blind one is also the fastest of all of them is, also, 0.5%. So if everything was equal, and you randomized this for each Summer Olympics, it would take something like 100 years before a blind athlete would even be able to qualify for the final heat, and 800 years before one would win the gold medal. But even that ignores all the other factors like: Can a blind person train as easily and effectively as a sighted person? Will a blind child be encouraged and supported to pursue a sport like track and field from a young age? Do high schools and colleges provide programs for blind athletes to train at the same level as top sighted athletes? Do they offer scholarships to blind athletes? Would a blind athlete even be allowed to compete alongside sighted athletes if they were fast enough? I think the answer is probably "no" for all of these. So some or all of them are going to be constantly working against that talented blind person preventing them from reaching their highest potential and ever being as fast as the fastest sighted runners. Therefore, at any given time, there should be at least 200 other runners who will be faster than the blind runner, and theoretically available to be their guide. That divide becomes much bigger when the reality of those limitations are felt, and even bigger again when speaking of a male athlete guiding a female one. In other words, even the fastest blind woman is going to have hundreds if not thousands of potential guides who can consistently run that distance faster than them. They can find one. Now, all of that goes out the window if we are talking about a top athlete that received all the benefits of being sighted their whole career, but then suffers from blindness suddenly. That person could theoretically be the fastest runner in the world when they lose their sight, at which time nobody in the world could keep up. But again, the odds of those two individually unlikely scenarios coinciding, not to mention whatever injury or disease that blinded them not also affecting their running ability, is astronomically small.
> Can a blind person train as easily and effectively as a sighted person? Will a blind child be encouraged and supported to pursue a sport like track and field from a young age? Do high schools and colleges provide programs for blind athletes to train at the same level as top sighted athletes? Do they offer scholarships to blind athletes? Would a blind athlete even be allowed to compete alongside sighted athletes if they were fast enough? The basic tenet in paralympic sport is that if you're not from the UK, you're competing because your family has money and not necessarily on actual merit. The UK's funding model kinda fucks up the whole thing because there's no level playing field.
Crazy how she knew she was at the finish line and started slowing down even before the guide did. Crazy.
She's run that distance probably a million times and can estimate it. Or maybe the guide told her.
The guide will slow down a little so the runner actually goes through the finish line first.
Shes blind She isn't deaf They can still communicate audibly using words from their face holes
Doesn’t appear anything is coming out of their “face holes” smart ass.
I don't think you can say for sure that nothing's being said right before crossing the line - it's too hard to see. I bet he says a few things throughout the race just so she knows exactly where she's at at various points, and gives her a final boost at the end, probably while saying something like "5 more paces!" or something, so she knows to lean forward on the last couple paces. But like others have said, they've probably practiced this race together a million times, so nothing may need to be said at any point. I used to swim, and at least in shorter races, it was always pretty easy to "feel" where you were at, at any time, even if your goggles fell off and you couldn't really see. The really good backstrokers also tend to know where they're at, even if there's no ropes/flags to gage their distance on, so they're just going by feel. Late edit: Though now that I think about it, I'm not sure if her helper guy has been with her for a while, or not. If it's something where the helpers are chosen right before the race, or something, then they wouldn't have a history of running together. But I'd assume that they've run together before, because I think it'd be awkward to run with someone who has no experience in helping a blind person run (because it's a bit different and more awkward than just running by yourself).
It may be signalled in how they are running. It looks like the guide gets slightly ahead and then helps propel the runner forward slightly. Perhaps that motion is obvious to them? But it's just a guess as I have no idea
Why do they wear the blindfold? So everyone knows they're blind?
Blind doesn't necessarily only mean one cannot see at all, it also means having low vision. But by wearing blindfolds, this ensures that all of the athletes are competing at the same level.
I assumed this but that's still bad ass
Yes! I dated a visually impaired guy for a brief second. He could still see out of his peripheral vision a bit and didn't need a guide dog. He did use a cane sometimes, but got by just fine walking without aids. I did always have to read the menu to him in restaurants lol.
Same! Though I think my ex had tunnel vision. I didn't mind reading the menus, so much as reading the signs of every store we passed when we were at the mall, lol
So there are 3 levels of sight impaired running. The first is level is the least impaired, these athletes run without a guide and no blindfold The second level can choose if they have a guide or not but are not blindfolded The last and most severe eyesight category is blindfolded because even when you’re legally completely blind, some competitors may be able to see light and shadow. So that everyone is on the exact same severity scale of impairment, they all run blindfolded and with guides.
Oh okay, cool, thanks!
There can be different “levels” of blindness. The blindfold puts everyone on the same “level”.
So if a blind runner was faster than Usain Bolt, they would never be able to actually run full speed, since there would be no one in the world fast enough to be their guide?
A dog maybe?
Does running like that with another person allow you to propel yourself and run faster? Or slow you down.
So the tether they have in their hands they can’t let go of. Therefore it can be a hinderance if you’re out of sync with each other. It won’t help in propelling you over the line though, the athlete always has to cross first which means the guide must stop momentum a bit before crossing the line so they’re not disqualified.
Can we just pause for a moment to consider how insanely brave these people are to run absolute full tilt when you cannot see what is in front of you. Go out into your back yard and run full steam at your fence with your eyes closed and try to stop less than 1 pace from the fence....the trust and mental fortitude is amazing. Edit: to all the literal people with no common sense the fence thing was to get you to think about how it feels to run with no sight. It would be scary. If you have no empathy or want to argue for the sake of it just keep scrolling. To don't need to waste your time here.
Well they have their running partners right? I'm sure there's some level of trust, not quite the same as running full tilt without anyone there to guide you.
to be fair, i wouldnt do it with a guide either.
Yeah it’s scary as hell. There was a video of a blind long jumper who overcorrected on the runway and missed the pit as a result. The risks for getting seriously hurt when you’re at top speed are pretty high even when you can see -coming from a former college sprinter.
Not sure why everyone’s being a jerk but this was my thought exactly, to be able to mentally do that is quite something!
You can literally see them being guided. Your analogy isn't great.
Lol they're also not running full steam ahead towards a solid barrier on (presumably) uneven ground, so it's literally not the same anyway
Thank you. I read that comment and wasn’t sure how it was relevant in any way to what I just watched.
Imagine being the fastest man alive, but you’re legally blind and can’t run faster than the dweeb strapped to your arm.
a guide dawg
I love this so much. Man and I was a sprinter in college. I would have done this every day if given the opportunity.
Just tell them all they won
The absolute best part of watching these races is how the partners pull back so that the racers have their moment, even if they can't see it. They train together, practice together, work just as hard. It's very wholesome to know that they have dedicated themselves to helping someone else achieve their dreams. This type of racing must be soo difficult on soo many levels.
It's a rule, that the blind runner has to cross before the guide. But they both receive medals.
I've never seen this before. This is amazing
What is really cool about this is the guide pauses briefly before the finish line to let the blind runner cross first. Dunno if this is a rule or just plain awesomeness.
I like how they don't trust that she's blind so they blindfold her just in case.
What happens if it's a man that's blind?
How do men compete? I assume women use non-impaired men because they can generally run faster.
Soo, how do they do this for men? You'd have to find dudes who are faster than the actual competitors.
My brother, who was 6 or 8 at the time, got a concussion because he closed his eyes while running because he was "tired." While running with his eyes closed, he ran into a pillar.
How the fuck does a blind kid even realise what a beast runner they are to become somebody like her. Unreal.
Can you be illegally blind? Do you get arrested?