Our prosthetics specialists paid especially close attention to the long jump final in the "Bird's Nest" this morning. Naturally, so did I. After all, the field was a who's who of recent Paralympics long jump history. Roberto la Barbera and Stefano Lippi from Italy, Jeff Skiba (USA), the two Germans Wojtek Czyz and Heinrich Popow, the Brazilian Oliviera and so on and so forth. In addition, about half of the competitors had their carbon springs optimized in the Otto Bock workshop earlier, in some cases just two days before the final. Urs Kolly from Switzerland even had several prostheses custom-fitted after his positive experience with the new knee settings on his jumping prosthesis. It would be nice if this encouraged him to once again compete at the London games in 2012.

So I got the camera from the workshop office and headed for the athletes' shuttle bus. On the way I met Daniel Arnold. He was headed for another bus going to the table tennis arena, where "someone has to cheer" for the German ladies in the tough final against China, as Daniel said. Track and field athletes Astrid Höfte, Andrea Hegen, Matthias Mester, Frank Tinnemeier and Jörg Frischmann were already waiting at the stop for the bus to the "Bird's Nest". Since they have their competitions behind them and are now just acting as a fan club, they were correspondingly relaxed.

I certainly don't want to make those jealous who have to stand in line outside the stadium. But traveling in the athletes' bus, which is simply waved through all security checkpoints and then drives right into the catacombs of the national stadium, is the ultimate in comfort and saves a lot of time. Due to large-scale street closures, even taking a taxi to the stadium still requires at least 20 minutes of walking until you get to your seat in the stadium.

An elevator runs from the catacombs to the six spectator levels. While security and service staff are out in force, their demeanor is discreet and friendly. Without any discussion, they let me sit in the front row which is otherwise reserved for the trainers of long jump and track and field athletes. And what do you know, our prosthetists have also decided to camp out there. It certainly makes a difference being that close to the action, perhaps ten meters away from the long jump pit.

The long jump is the first competition of the day. While the stadium is only half full at the outset, the crowd grows to more than 80,000 within half an hour. And that on a Tuesday morning. Beijing is still caught up in the excitement of the Paralympics.
    
The lower ranks are in a great mood today. However, the long jump competition really cannot be the cause since it is not particularly exciting. With the world record jump of 6.50 meters by Wojtek Czyz on the first attempt, the preliminary decision was quickly made. As with all of the many world records set in this stadium, the Chinese celebrate the athlete no matter what country he or she comes from. Fears raised before the Paralympics that the hosts alone would set a slew of new records proved to be unfounded. The Paralympics as international Chinese championships? You really cannot say that. The broad-based increase in performance among top international athletes has continued at these games. Wojtek did his part with the emotional explosions he is known for in such situations.

Due to the point conversion process in the joint competition with transfemoral amputees, athletes with transtibial amputations would have to make incredible jumps of over seven meters in order to come close to Wojtek. After three violations, Heinrich Popow was forced to prematurely bury the dream for a second medal. Almost half of all jumps in this competition were disallowed, which illustrates just how difficult it really is to hit the bar precisely with a prosthesis.

Reducing the number of medal decisions is unavoidable. But the discussion about conversion procedures and transparency for the audience is sure to continue after these Paralympics.

While everyone here is looking forward to the closing ceremonies on September 17 in Beijing, organizers in London have long since started planning. Piers Jones, sports manager for the 2012 Paralympics, was just here to ask about space requirements for technical service. In many ways, the games in Beijing have set the bar high for future organizers. Spectators and athletes can frequently be seen wearing "Thank you, Beijing" T-shirts as of late. Unless something really unexpected happens, these will surely be the best games ever.