The first sports event - forklift pushing - has been decided six days before the opening of the Paralympics. Forklift pushing is generally known as the latest trend in sports. The season opened recently during an open house at the Federal Chancellery. There, too, the forklift was stuck and initially refused to budge. In Beijing, the team event in forklift pushing was won by a Chinese contingent supported by technology in the form of a truck. However, using this device was generally considered acceptable since it was deployed for a good cause: At long last, the final crates and boxes needed to complete the workshop equipment have reached their destination in the Paralympic Village.

Now the outside of the workshop also looks the way it was intended in the file folder with technical drawings. Without redeployment of the forklift, this would have been practically impossible. Nor could it have been done without the boundless competitive and team spirit of the forklift pushers, who never even gave the impression of willingness to bow to the rules of gravity.

On Sunday they had probably already forgotten about the heavy rains on Saturday when the lawn was soaked more thoroughly than expected. Indeed the weather on Sunday morning was surprisingly good. The sun was streaming through the windows by 6:30 am. Resplendent blue skies with puffy white clouds you might expect on a screensaver, but not in Beijing after all those smog warnings. While the temperature climbed to a perceived 30 degrees during the day, there is a steady wind. This summer weather is very welcome.

Meanwhile the workshop is being approached with a wide variety of jobs. At reception, Chris Song and Dofhin Cai from China with Monica Ingerström from Finland really have to pay attention in order to guide athletes to the respective expert. On the other hand, things are straightforward for Gordian Aaron from Mexico. The only question remains how long it will take to mend his broken wheel. The other common question - what will it cost - is simply waved away by Monica. After all, the service is free of charge for the athletes.
 
Gernot Kretschmer is working on a damaged prosthetic foot for a Bulgarian athlete. A complicated case. "I hope we somehow manage to pull it off." He re-laminated the foot with carbon, allowing her to even make smaller jumps. Larger jumps will follow as soon as the original spare part is flown in. The athlete, Stela Eneva, is among those without any sponsors and has to get by with plenty of idealism. Some readers of the Paralympics DIALOG from Otto Bock are sure to be familiar with her. Otherwise, simply download the magazine at www.ottobock-in-beijing.com. (A little bit of PR here and there is unavoidable.)

Meanwhile the wheelchair experts are sitting, standing and lying in front of an especially challenging job. An athlete from Cuba came into the workshop with a broken side panel on his wheelchair. Since a spare parts search for this model seems doomed from the outset, an experienced Otto Bock trio from Königsee - Mattes Trappe, Ronny Heinze and Kai Nawratil - quickly produce a new side panel.

Later on, the L.A.S.A.R. Posture is used for the first time in this workshop. The athlete from Thailand probably has no idea just how good his timing is. Installation of the device was only just completed. After all, equipping and expanding the workshop is still in progress while operations are ongoing. The main thing is that the man will leave with an improved gait pattern. In order to accomplish this, the measuring equipment uses a laser beam to indicate how fine adjustment changes on the prosthetic foot affect the shifting of weight.
 
In conclusion, let us return to the decision outside and before the Paralympic Games: In addition to a successful performance in forklift pushing, a water stopping competition also drew attention. The title was won by Swiss orthopedic technician Walter Emil Grubenmann, who stopped water shooting up out of a drain by throwing a wooden beam over it and skilfully balancing on top of it for quite some time, effectively cutting off the flow. A great success for both the acrobat and the workshop. After all, it limited the flood to a brief period and an area of just a few square meters. On a day of intense activity throughout much of the repair workshop, anything more serious would have been the last straw. You would think Walter Emil more than earned his first Beijing duck today...