1964 during the paralympic games in Tokyo, wheelchair racing became a paralympic event for the first time, and both male and female athletes could participate in the 60-meter race. Since then, wheelchair racing has become an exciting event in the disabled sports, and it has also raised the public's attention to wheelchair athletes.
There is a strict grading system for wheelchair racing in Paralympic Games: according to athletes' sports ability and disability level, it is divided into four levels: T5 1, T52, T53 and T54, among which T54 athletes have the least disability.
In wheelchair racing, athletes must use special wheelchairs to compete in track and field. This special wheelchair is a racing wheelchair. A competition wheelchair must have at least two big wheels and one small wheel. The diameter of the big wheel, including pneumatic tires, shall not exceed 70 cm, and the diameter of the small wheel shall not exceed 50 cm. In order to make the wheelchair difficult to fall over, the rear two wheels of the racing wheelchair must be opened. In addition, the maximum height of the wheelchair chair from the ground should not exceed 50 cm. No mechanical devices or levers are allowed to drive the wheelchair. Only athletes can drive wheels or crank forward. Wheelchair players also need to wear helmets, special gloves and goggles during the competition. Before giving the order, the outermost tangent of the small wheel shall not exceed the inner edge of the starting line. When you reach the finish line, stop the watch so that the outermost tangent of the wheel hub touches the inner edge of the finish line.
Compared with other athletes with spinal cord injury, T54 athletes have the least disability in wheelchair racing. They can use the waist strength to drive the upper body, especially the arms, so they have the longest acting distance on the wheelchair driving wheel and the largest fluctuation range of their bodies, which is beneficial for athletes to give full play to the strength of their arms and have a large range of body movements, so that athletes can use the fluctuation of their bodies to obtain gravity acceleration and increase the strength of their arms to drive the wheels to move downwards. The long movement distance and large movement range create favorable conditions for athletes to gain greater speed, and also make T54-level competitions more intense and enjoyable.
In wheelchair racing, in order to minimize the air resistance in front of the body and advance at the maximum speed, athletes often bury their heads at the same height as the chair, so that their heads, chest, waist and hips are on a horizontal plane parallel to the ground. At the same time, in order to ensure that the direction of travel does not deviate from the prescribed track, athletes must raise their heads to identify the direction after each row, and then quickly bury their heads to continue driving after determining the direction.
The wheelchair used for competition has a figure-eight handle, and the fixed rotation angle can be adjusted. When an athlete turns a corner, the front wheel of the wheelchair will automatically turn to the set angle as long as the handle is lightly touched. After turning the corner, he touches the handle again and the wheelchair can go straight ahead. In order to save time, some excellent athletes can also control the rotation of wheelchairs by changing the strength of their left and right hands to rotate wheelchairs.