Not just broken records: 2,700 repairs undertaken on prosthetic limbs, equipment during Games

Gdansk : During halftime of Germany´s wheelchair rugby game against Canada at the Paris Paralympics, Jens Sauerbier was missing a crucial part of his wheelchair and needed a repair to continue playing.

“The metal cage at the front of my chair broke. They welded it for me during halftime, then I was ready to go again.”

It took 10 minutes for technicians to weld the chair back together. Otherwise, Sauerbier says, the game would have been over for him.

Mid-game and pre-competition repairs are not unusual for para-athletes. Wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs and crucial equipment can and do break, even at the highest level of competition.

This is especially true in a high-contact sport such as wheelchair rugby. “If you're driving against other people at 15/20 km/h, some things might break,” Sauerbier said.

“These are athletes that are competing at their absolute highest. They're breaking world records, so they're going to break stuff“, Jeffrey Waldmuller, an Ottobock technician and a para-athlete himself told Reuters.

Ottobock, a German med-tech firm that makes prosthetics, plays a crucial role in ensuring athletes can compete even if equipment does break. The company, which set up a pop-up workshop inside the Paralympic Village, said it carried out roughly 2,700 repairs during the Games.

Around 55 per cent of the repairs made were on wheelchairs, 45 per cent were on prosthetic, orthotic and other repairs, the company said.

The firm was present at events such as para archery and para athletics, but was also available to fix everyday equipment used by athletes who might find themselves blocked or slowed down because a piece of equipment has failed them.

“Unfortunately, it’s something that I think all prosthetic users worry about, because