Paralympic swimmer with Asperger's:

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They're televising the paralympics here in Australia on one of our digital channels ABC2 for a few hours at night I've seen some of them.
Our team is doing much better then the other olympics and are showing better sportsmanship then the other swimmers did.

I actually wouldn't mind attempting archery in the paralympics; give me four years of daily training (see: recreation ) and I'd probably at least qualify (one of the few things I'm good at is putting arrows and lead on target).

But we figured that I'd be too disabled for it though.

That's such a shame and quite shocking actually. It's being well televised here, on Channel4, not the BBC, which televised the Olympics. I'm somewhat transfixed by the wheelchair basketball. It's so inspiring.

We have one of your countrymen (Adam Hills) presenting a comical round-up of the day's events. I've been watching that each night too.

Yes Adam Hills was the host of a music program here called "spicks and specks" he was born without a foot "Not sure which one" though.

With that hair and the style she has in some interviews that are on Youtube, I get the impression she's a Goth as well:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA_zCJYnoRM[/youtube]

He's fairly well known here (among those who take note of comedians anyway). He's going to get his foot painted in either UK or Australian flag colours, depending on which country wins the most gold medals. Team GB are in the lead. BTW It's his right foot.

Whilst between the Olympic and Paralympic games a sad thought came to mind that here is yet another thing in life where my fantastic son would not fit into either category as he has Asperger's. I was so pleased when I saw Jessica-Jane Applegate as being described as having Asperger's but confused that she was also described as being in the 'intellectually challenged' category. With all the positive messages that the games are giving out I don't feel this description is correct for people with Asperger's although please note I am not saying there is anything wrong with being intellectually challenged. Does anyone out there know what I am running on about?!?

Judging by the interviews I've seen, I'm not sure if she's seems just to be childish or not.

I understand. My daughter has just been diagnosed with Aspergers and is a promising athlete. She's just 6 3/4 yrs, but we have hopes for her and, at the moment, she's talking about wanting to be in the Olympics. But, she won't fit the criteria for the 'intellectually challenged' group. She definitely does not have an IQ of under 75, which is a criteria for that category. It hasn't been tested, but I'll make a guess that it's well over 100. This category is not really for the average person with Aspergers, it's for a small minority anyway. From your post, I suspect your son wouldn't qualify either.

My best hope for my daughter is that her Aspergers does not impact on her athletic ability and she gets to participate in the Olympics (or at least can aim for it). She attends a weekly athletics class and is doing well. However, usually she doesn't participate properly for the whole class; she will for some of the class, but the amount of time varies from one week to the next. But, she attended a week long class in the summer (2 hours each day) and won more prizes than anyone else, including best younger girl. I was really surprised because, every day, when I watched for the last half hour, she was never participating (she was playing with bottle tops or lying on the ground like a starfish, etc). I was told that she had been joining in until just before I arrived. When it came to competition day, she was totally into it and demonstrated her abilities. I'm not sure how this is going to develop. Hopefully, as she matures, she'll participate more.

I think this is really inspiring, that an Aspie is chasing their dream. If only this kind of thing would be televised in the US instead or at least along with all the celebrities and divorce-after-two-month-marriages. Think about which of those would inspire youth more.

I have been watching the paralympics. I have enjoyed it .
In the paralympics I like watching basketball, rugby, football, some cycling and a little swimming.

To me the Paralympics are aimed at allowing entrants to compete in events that take their disabilities into account. Physical disabilities are fairly easy to classify and establish the impact sporting performance, although there is always some disagreement between categories.

For conditions such as AS it is more difficult to establish the level of impairment (in terms of performance in the sport). Within the broader intellectual disability classification it will be even more varied. It will also be a lot harder to test the competitors to ensure they have a genuine condition especially with language barriers being taken into account. Fraud during the Sydney Paralympics resulted in these categories being suspended during the Athens and Beijing competitions.

It would be interesting to see the qualification requirements for the intellectual disability category.

Looking at the results Applegate was 19 seconds (17%) slower than the Olympic winner in the same event.

It's too bad that the Paralympics aren't being aired in my part of Canada. I also only have basic cable as well.

I've posted a link to it.

Looking back through the thread I found your link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19371031. I had seen other BBC Magazine articles, in the past, but not that one.

The description there was very vague, and hard to prove (makes the DSM look scientific!)

The following quote from the BBC article:

seems like something that all athletes would have to overcome during training/ practice. Whilst for intellectually impaired athletes it would be more difficult it would be very hard to quantify.

Lumping the wide spectrum of intellectual disabilities into one category is probably not levelling the playing field that much.