Welcome to The Tech Race.
This technology allows Paralympic athletes
to compete on par with Olympians.
How is it possible that simple engineering is making us
question the rules of the game?
(RUNNING PROSTHETICS)
Carbon-fibre prostheses are able to reproduce
and even improve the movements of the knee joint and ankle.
(JAPAN)
(KAWASAKI)
Modern-day Paralympic prostheses are the result of
a long design process, as well as leaps in technology.
Let's meet one of the most important
prosthetics manufacturers in Kawasaki, Japan.
(XIBORG OFFICES)
The less curved it is, the lighter,
but this arrow lays down.
If you hoist this arrow,
the prosthesis is not that flexible.
I mean, this type of prosthesis only jumps around here,
but other types jump higher.
Running prostheses are made of
a special carbon-fibre reinforced polymer.
It is an extremely strong and light reinforced plastic,
which contains carbon fibres.
The blades are transtibial prostheses,
meaning they replace legs and feet
that are amputated below the knee,
and are designed by specialised engineers.
Everybody thinks that Paralympic athletes
are disabled,
but the prosthetic legs advances
make the athletes progress,
and they can reach the Olympic athletes
and even get better than them.
Running blades used to be C-shaped,
causing athletes to lose significant energy at turns.
The cutting-edge J-shaped blades
act more like a human foot.
The curvature at the bottom of the blade acts like an ankle,
giving increased speed and efficiency on corners.
So we use two legs to walk,
but for the sprinting
we use the leg as a spring, to pump up our body.
We have earlier time,
which is the time we don't have any contact with the ground.
So the prostheses push our body upwards, and hop.
A Paralympic athlete can run
at the same speed as able-bodied sprinters
using 25% less oxygen,
due to the prosthesis energy return.
The carbon-fibre blades produce three times more energy return
than a human ankle.
Keita Sato participated in the Paralympic Games Rio 2016
with Team Japan,
in the athletics 4 x 100m men's relay,
achieving a time of 44.16 -
just 6.52 seconds more
than what Andre De Grasse achieved
in the Olympic Games Rio 2016 for Team Canada.
Both went on to take home
Olympic medals for their teams.
The first Paralympic Games were held in Rome, 1960.
They are open to athletes with physical, mental
and sensory disabilities.
It has been an important social and sporting breakthrough,
that has put disabled athletes in the Olympics.
Not everything can be achieved by technology alone -
training is just as crucial.
Paralympic athletes' training
is similar to the process of rehabilitation.
Thanks to the development of the prosthetic legs
and the training, more people that were using a wheelchair
will be able to use prosthetic legs.
Training hard and advances in technology
have shown their results.
Oscar Pistorius created history
in the Olympic Games London 2012,
where he became the first amputee to reach
a 400m semifinal, running with prostheses.
Since then, he has been nicknamed the Blade Runner.
If a Paralympic athlete becomes a star like Usain Bolt
or Federer,
the number of children who want to be stars will increase.
So we have an objective - to create a star.
When technology fuses with humans, we evolve.
I think there is a lot more progress
in Paralympics than Olympics.
The progress is good not only for sports, but for society.
There are a lot of dreams there.
As Paralympic athletes are beginning to run faster
than Olympians, the tech race continues.
Every day, researchers and scientists
are racing against time
to improve and pioneer new advances in technology,
hoping to one day close the gap
between Paralympic and Olympic runners.