• Pistorius sorry for timing of outburst at Paralympics -- but is brand 'destroyed'?

    Tal Cohen / EPA

    Oscar Pistorius of South Africa, left, and Alan Fonteles Cardoso Oliveira of Brazil shake hands on the podium after the Men's 200-meter final during the London 2012 Paralympic Games on Sunday. Pistorius apologized Monday for the timing of his complaints about a rival's blades following his defeat in the final, but insisted that officials need to change the rules to prevent some runners from getting an unfair advantage.

    By Jamieson Lesko, NBC News

    Updated at 6:15 a.m. ET Tuesday: LONDON - “Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius -- the unofficial face of the Paralympic Games -- was clearly still reeling Monday after losing a key race over the weekend.

    Pistorius issued an apology for “the timing” of his remarks, which in essence accused race winner Alan Fonteles Oliveira from Brazil of not playing fair. But the usually mild-mannered South African did not step back from his statement alleging that Sunday’s race was not run on an even playing field.

    On Tuesday, some in the British media speculated whether he had already tarnishing his image. "If Oscar had run the time he can run I don't think we'd be having the debate about the length of the blades or how tall an athlete should be on blades," Gareth A Davies of the Daily Telegraph said on the U.K.'s Channel 4 News.

    "I think his outburst kind of ruined in a sense, or destroyed the Pistorius brand," Davies said.

    "He's running faster backwards now than he runs forward, (isn't he) with his retractions," anchor Jonathan Edwards joked.

    The 200-meter final was the Paralympic race Pistorius had said he was looking forward to the most, and his shock at losing was palpable. Simply put, he was the one to beat. In Saturday’s qualifying heat, Pistorius had set a new world record. He’d won the gold in the 200 meter in Beijing.

    Doctor Gerry Versfeld, Oscar Pistorius' doctor, describes the decision to amputate the sprinter's legs when he was a boy.  NBC Sports' Mary Carillo reports for Rock Center.

    But then came Sunday night’s race, and his stunning loss.

    'Meet the Superhumans': Paralympians burst onto world stage

    “We are not running a fair race here. I can’t compete with Alan’s stride length,” said Pistorius, who made Olympic history this year as the first disabled athlete to run in the able-bodied games. Pistorius himself fought claims that carbon-fiber prosthetics are advantageous when compared to human legs.

    ‘Absolutely ridiculous’
    In front of a sold-out stadium Sunday night, the 24-year-old South African had a clear lead coming around the final bend. Then Brazil’s Oliveira surged in the final stretch, passed Pistorius, and won the race by .07 seconds.

    "I don't know how you can come back, watching the replay, from eight meters behind on the 100 to win. It's absolutely ridiculous," Pistorius told British broadcaster Channel 4 in a trackside interview.  

    South African runner Oscar Pistorius, who lost both his legs as a child, talks with TODAY's Savannah Guthrie about becoming the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics, and says it was "difficult" to hear people say his prosthetics give him an unfair advantage.

    His comments jarred with the fact that he has said that this year’s Paralympic Games have led spectators to “focus really on the ability” of the athletes, rather than “focusing on the disability.”

    Usually known for his modesty and good sportsmanship, Pistorius accused Oliveira of having an advantage by adjusting the length of his blades, thus giving the Brazilian a longer stride.

    "The [International Paralympic Committee] have their regulations. The regulations allow that athletes can make themselves unbelievably high. We've tried to address the issue with them in the weeks up to this and it's just been falling on deaf ears,” he said on Channel 4.

    Uncharacteristic outburst 
    Pistorius’ remarks reverberated through the sporting world. 

    Iraq vet: 'Now it's time to win' at Paralympics

    “I’m quite shocked the way Oscar had a bit of an outburst because it’s not in his character, so obviously he feels very strongly that the rules need to be addressed,” Olympic silver medalist sprinter Iwan Thomas said on Channel 4. “But as we sit here tonight the rules are as they are and [Oliveira’s] done nothing wrong.”

    Eddie Keogh / Reuters

    The blades of Brazil's Alan Oliveira (R) and South Africa's Oscar Pistorius are seen after the Men's 200m T44 classification at the Olympic Stadium during the London 2012 Paralympic Games on Sunday.

    Thomas did not hold out much hope that Olympic authorities would change their decision.

    “I don’t think they’re just going to suddenly tear up the rule book just because Oscar said something. Although he’s the king of the sport, rules are there and it probably takes a long process to get things looked at,” he said.

    Measured response
    Indeed, the International Paralympic Committee defended its rules by tweeting a photo showing the maximum heights allowed for individual athletes, and showing Pistorius at a height of 193.5cm and Oliveira at 185.4cm. 

    “There are rules in place with IPC Athletics whereby we measure the length of the blade prior to competition, check they're in proportion with the body and all of the athletes last night passed the test, so yes, he (Oliveira) was a legitimate winner,” IPC representative Craig  Spence said.

    Click here of The Science of Sport's findings on the race.

    Sorry for ‘timing’
    On Monday, Pistorius stuck by the essence of his post-race comments and did not step back from his complaint.

    He said in a statement:

    “I would never want to detract from another athlete's moment of triumph and I want to apologize for the timing of my comments after yesterday's race. I do believe that there is an issue here and I welcome the opportunity to discuss with the IPC [International Paralympic Committee] but I accept that raising these concerns immediately as I stepped off the track was wrong. That was Alan's moment and I would like to put on record the respect I have for him. I am a proud Paralympian and believe in the fairness of sport. I am happy to work with the IPC who obviously share these aims.”

    Meanwhile, Team South Africa and SASCOC (South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee) issued a statement welcoming Pistorius' apology.

    Oscar Pistorius from South Africa became the first double amputee to compete in the games by running  the men's 400-meter race. He says that having the opportunity to represent his country in the Olympics "far surpassed" his expectations.

    "We note and welcome Oscar's apology for anything said in haste, and we obviously fully understand that he was emotionally upset immediately after such an important event here in London. We again congratulate Oscar on winning his silver medal on Sunday. As always we are fully supportive of all our athletes and will engage through the official channels from the National Paralympic Committee in South Africa to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) on any concerns that Oscar may have."

    They’ll meet again
    Oliveira, who called Pistorius a “great athlete,” said he was saddened by the South African’s reactions.

    “I am just sad with the interview where he said my blades were too big” Oliveria said. “He was bothered by my time in the semi-finals and he wanted to get to me with his polemic but it did not work. For me he is a really great idol and to hear that from a great idol is difficult.”

    Pistorius and Oliveira are on course to meet again in round one of the 100 meters on Wednesday and round one of the 400 meters on Friday. Assuming they both make those finals, they will race again at the 100 meter final on Thursday and the 400 meter final on Saturday.

    More coverage of the London Paralympics from Britain's ITV News

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  • Ex-Marine Angela Madsen on her journey from homelessness to the Paralympics

    Retired U.S. Marine Angela Madsen once lived out of a locker at Disneyland. But the 52-year-old paraplegic turned her life around and has since rowed across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. She's now competing for Team USA at the Paralympic Games in London.

    By Jamieson Lesko, NBC News

    LONDON -- Angela Madsen's journey to the London 2012 Paralympics is nothing short of extraordinary.

    Complications following a back injury she sustained while serving in Marine Corps at the age of 20 led to her becoming a paraplegic when she was in her 30s.

    Bound to a wheelchair, she fell into a deep depression. She lost her job. Her marriage dissolved.

    "I lost my house ... I ended up homeless, kept my things in a locker at Disneyland. Happiest place on earth, right?" she told NBC News at the USA track-and-field training camp at RAF Lakenheath, near Cambridge, England, last week.

    But the native Californian missed surfing, so she set out to find a way back to the water, determined to turn her life around.

    Some of the hottest tickets at the London Paralympics are for wheelchair rugby. The sport is so violent and fierce, that it has been dubbed "Murderball."

    "I started taking responsibility … and started making the changes and decisions to move positively forward in my life,” she said.

    Now, her definition of a disabled person is "somebody who doesn't believe they can and doesn't try.”

    'Meet the Superhumans': Paralympians burst onto world stage

    She competed in the 2006 world surfing championships and then fell in love with rowing.

    She turned this hobby into history by rowing across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

    Ahead of the London Paralympics, L.A. Galaxy midfielder David Beckham spent a day learning blind soccer from Team Great Britain.


    "I didn't row across my first ocean until I was 47,” she said with a laugh.

    "I have six Guinness World Records for rowing oceans. I've circumnavigated Great Britain ... I've been places on this planet that no human being has ever been before. A thousand miles from land in any direction ... it's been a pretty amazing life."

    Read Angela Madsen's profile at the Paralympic Games' website

    Next year, she plans to row solo across the Pacific Ocean.

    Madsen rowed for Team USA in the Beijing Paralympic Games, narrowly missing the podium. "I missed the medal rounds by 7-hundredths of a second.”

    Centra "Ce-Ce" Mazyck, who was paralyzed during a parachute jump with the 82nd Airborne in November 2003, will compete in the javelin at the London Paralympics.

    In the London 2012 Paralympic Games, the 52-year-old is trying her hand at track and field events, competing in the women's shot put and javelin.

    "I don’t have any regrets about anything. If I could go back and change anything I wouldn't, except for the amount of pain I have with the rods in my back,” Madsen said. “That could definitely go. But I can’t foresee change in anything. I'm very, very satisfied with the life that I have now."

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  • From darkness to gold: Blinded Navy swimmer set to race at Paralympics

    Slideshow: Blinded warrior has visions of gold

    Lt. Brad Snyder lost his sight in an IED explosion in Afghanistan last year. The Navy officer will once again represent the U.S., this time at the London 2012 Paralympics.

    Launch slideshow

    By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

    The man who views only black today is visualizing all the colors of his London swims. In his mind, he sees the aqua-blue pool frothy with wakes, the home stretch of the lane lines painted red, and the dark, wide mouths of roaring fans.


    Behind prosthetic blue eyes — replacements for the natural pair he lost after an explosion in Afghanistan nearly a year ago — Navy Lt. Brad Snyder soaks in the scenery of a dream realized. The 2012 Paralympics open today in Britain. Snyder races for gold Friday.

    Already, though, he can glimpse a distinct, happy glow.

    Related: 'Meet the Superhumans': Paralympians burst onto world stage 

    “During the Olympics, I read about the races, about (Michael) Phelps and (Ryan) Lochte and Missy Franklin. I heard the commentary and used that to pull out the details to produce this image,” Snyder said. “But instead of reading about Lochte, I just implanted myself in there.

    “I imagine stepping onto the block, hearing “take your mark,” the sound of the start, hopping in the pool then just being smooth and strong down the middle of the lane, executing some good turns, and hitting the pad at the end. I’m imagining success. I’m imagining the good feeling that comes with competing well.”

    As an elite athlete — among blind swimmers he is No. 1 in the world at three freestyle distances (50-, 100- and 400-meters) — Snyder draws such mental pictures as a preparation tool. As a result, nothing in or around the London pool, he said, should feel unfamiliar.

    Lt. Brad Snyder, blinded by an IED explosion in Afghanistan, is now training for the London 2012 Paralympics.

    But in a life being rebuilt after severe injury, this ironic tactic is simply how the man endures.

    “I’ll tell you a little story,” said his mother, Valarie Snyder. “He was describing his apartment to me: ‘It has the most beautiful rooftop view.’ That’s how our conversations go all the time. It’s been rare that he gets down, and even then he apologizes for it: ‘Sorry I was in a bad mood.’ ”

    Related: Veterans push Paralympics back to battlefield roots
    Related: Wounded warrior seeks glory representing America in London

    The bright side is never far off. But total darkness came in a single stride. On Sept. 7, 2011, the former Navy bomb defuser was rushing forward to help two Afghan soldiers wounded in an initial IED blast. In his dash, Snyder stepped on a second hidden bomb in an irrigation ditch spanning a farm field. His eyes were irreparably damaged by the detonation and later were removed by a surgeon.

    Once a member of the Naval Academy swim team, Snyder returned to the water about a month later — this time, seeking a familiar, soft place in a world suddenly filled with surprise, hard edges.

    “I was there the first day he got back in the pool,” his mother recalls. “Just to see the sheer joy on his face. On the ride home afterward he told me: ‘I can do this, mom. I can swim competitively. Everything new that I can do just makes me realize: this isn’t such a bad thing.’ ”

    The warm water also rekindled an ultra-competitive, inner furnace, driving Snyder to begin training in Baltimore with Brian Loeffler, head swimming coach at Loyola University. His new goal: earn a spot on the U.S. Paralympic swim team and compete at the world’s second-largest sporting event, the Paralympics. He punched his London ticket in June after a series of spectacular sprints at the time trials in Bismarck, N.D.

    He strolls into London’s Olympic Stadium today with 226 other disabled American athletes — one of 20 active or former service members on the U.S. team, and one of six wounded during combat in Iraq or Afghanistan.

    “There’s a girl who was in a coma for four years. There are people dealing with moderate cerebral palsy,” Snyder said. “It puts everything in perspective when I’m contending with my own little issue to see what everybody on the team puts up with. It humbles you. Every person on the roster is one of the most amazing people I’ve met.”

    Yet each teammate also is an accomplished athlete who outperformed hundreds of Paralympic hopefuls to make the cut. For context, simply peruse two of Snyder’s post-injury times. In the 50-meter freestyle: 26.54 seconds — better than 10 Olympians who swam in London; and in the 100-meter freestyle: 57.75 — quicker than three 2012 Olympians.

    The 100-meter free on Friday offers Snyder his first crack at a medal, and it unleashes an aggressive schedule of seven events over nine days. In addition to his three world-best times, he’s currently ranked No. 2 among blind swimmers in the 100-meter butterfly and No. 4 in the 200-meter individual medley. For each event, Loeffler works as Snyder’s “tapper,” using a walking cane to touch Snyder’s shoulders to alert him that the wall is near and that a flip turn or final push is required.

    “His order of events sets up well since the sprints are early in the week (and) I do expect he will do well in his early events,” said Loeffler, who also serves as the co-head coach of the American Paralympic swim team. “(But) we have focused his training toward the 400 free.”

    For Snyder, his coach and his family, that is the race of races, scheduled for Sept. 7 — exactly one year to the day he stepped on the bomb.

    “It’s difficult to imagine and quantify the emotions I’ll be running through that day. But it’s going to be a moment that I’m going to enjoy. Because to me, competing on that day means that I was presented a challenge and I experienced some success in my transition to blindness. I conquered my adversity to some extent. Obviously, the adversity is not conquered. I’m still blind at the end of the day,” Snyder said. “But it means I’ve walked the path from being chained to the bed at exactly a year ago to competing on an international level at event like the Paralympics. It means I won a little bit.”

    All of the people who huddled near that bed last September at Bethesda Naval Hospital outside Washington, D.C. will be in the crowd in London — his two brothers, his sister, an aunt and his mother — who calls herself “a weeper” and who fully expects a gush of tears, win or lose.

    “From getting the phone call that morning from his commanding officer to not knowing what we were about to go through to what we went through the past year and then to see all that he has accomplished, well, it’s going to be amazing,” Valarie Snyder said.

    “He shared something with me not long ago. He said that every little boy dreams of doing something great in their life in sports. If you’re a runner or a swimmer, you dream of one day going to the Olympics. But when you grow up," she added, "you realize that was just a dream."

    “He believes has been given the opportunity to actually fulfill his dream.”

    Bill Briggs is a frequent contributor to msnbc.com and author of “The Third Miracle.” 

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  • 'Meet the Superhumans': Paralympians burst onto world stage

    Channel 4 Paralympics - Meet the Superhumans from IWRF on Vimeo.

    By Jamieson Lesko, NBC News

    LONDON -- A battlefield explosion sends troops flying, a speeding car flips over on a highway, a "Murderball" player is knocked right out of his wheelchair, all set to a fierce Public Enemy soundtrack. 

    "Forget everything you thought you knew about strength. Forget everything you thought you knew about humans. It's time to do battle. Meet the Superhumans."

    That’s how British TV viewers are being introduced to this year’s Paralympic athletes by Channel 4, which is broadcasting the London 2012 Games. Its campaign is giving Superbowl ads a run for their money, going viral with more than 500,000 views on YouTube alone.

    The hard-hitting ad is designed to jolt the public into a state of awareness and awe of what many of these disabled athletes have had to deal with just to stay alive, let alone compete at an elite level. It highlights that the competitors have overcome disabilities and disasters most of us cannot begin to imagine or will ever have to face. And that was before they became world-class competitors.

    Transforming the despair of being paralyzed in battle into determination, Iraq War veteran Scott Winkler sets his sights on a medal at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

    More coverage of the London Paralympics from Britain's ITV News

    The campaign also aims to combat the impression that the Paralympics is essentially the "Olympics-lite." Among the sports the ad focuses on is wheelchair rugby -- which is so violent that it's been dubbed "Murderball." The sheer amount of full-force contact between players requires welders to be put on standby on the sideline to repair damaged wheelchairs.

    Some of the hottest tickets at the London Paralympics are for wheelchair rugby. The sport is so violent and fierce, that it has been dubbed "Murderball". ITN's Lewis Vaughan Jones met Team Great Britain's inspirational captain.

    The International Wheelchair Rugby Federation has championed the "Meet the Superhumans" campaign and comments posted on its Vimeo page illustrate the ad's power. "Now that's what I'm talking about, 'Thank you for letting me be myself.' Public Enemy never sounded better," one fan wrote. "It's a great soundtrack for our ... lives whether we're Olympians or not."

    Channel 4

    This ad campaign for Channel 4's Paralympic coverage has captured the imagination of many people in Britain.

    The event was founded 1948 to help rehabilitate injured British veterans returning from the Second World War, though many Americans remain unaware that it exists. (There's also a tendency to confuse it with the Special Olympics, which is unrelated. Paralympic athletes compete despite impairments including amputations, blindness, cerebral palsy and mobility disabilities.) However, there are signs that 2012 will be its breakout year.

    Retired U.S. Marine Angela Madsen once lived out of a locker at Disneyland. But the 52-year-old paraplegic turned her life around and has rowed across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. She's now competing for Team USA at the Paralympic Games in London. Madsen told her story to NBC's Jamieson Lesko.

    London-bound veterans push Paralympics back to battlefield roots

    The success of the London 2012 Olympic Games has sparked a spike in public interest in Britain. Ticket sales have wildly exceeded expectations, with organizers saying 2.3 million tickets have already been sold, which is more than any other Paralympic Games in history. There's a high demand for the 200,000 remaining tickets, which will be made available in batches online.

    Soccer superstar David Beckham is serving as an ambassador to the Games and Prince William and Kate Middleton are expected to attend Wednesday night's Opening Ceremony.

    Ahead of the London Paralympics, L.A. Galaxy midfielder David Beckham spent a day learning blind football from Team Great Britain.

    Team USA features 20 military veterans and active duty service members, including some wounded at war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Among them is U.S. Army 82nd Airborne paratrooper Centra "Ce-Ce" Mazyck, who was paralyzed when her parachute got tangled with another in 2003. Doctors said she'd never walk again but Maczyk refused to listen. And she has proved them wrong.

    "I wasn't hearing it. In my heart, in my soul, I knew I could walk," Mazyck told NBC News. "To this day, I am walking."

    Centra "Ce-Ce" Mazyck, who was paralyzed during a parachute jump with the 82 Airborne in November 2003, will compete in the javelin at the London Paralympics. "This is my second chance," she tells NBC News' Jamieson Lesko.

    The South Carolina-based mother of one is now engaged to be married but admits shes also deeply "in love" with her javelin.

    'Very fortunate'
    U.S. Navy Lt. Bradley Snyder was blinded by a bomb while rushing to the aid of two fellow soldiers in Afghanistan.

    His training regimen had him swimming 4,000 yards a day at his local pool in Baltimore. He is due to compete on the one-year anniversary of his injury. 

    Slideshow: Blinded warrior has visions of gold

    Lt. Brad Snyder lost his sight in an IED explosion in Afghanistan last year. The Navy officer will once again represent the U.S., this time at the London 2012 Paralympics in September.

    Launch slideshow

    "I knew I was very fortunate to be in that hospital bed and not in a coffin in the ground," Snyder said. "I'm going to show people that I'm not going to let this beat me. I'm not going to let blindness build a brick wall around me. I am going to find a way forward."

    From darkness to gold: Blinded Navy swimmer set to race at Paralympics

    South African double amputee and sprinter Oscar Pistorius, who has been nicknamed the "Blade Runner," will compete in the Paralympics after making history by running in the 400-meter event at the Olympics.

    Pistorius is likely to face tough competition from Team USA, including a 25-year-old rocket scientist Jerome Singleton and the 22-year-old Blake Leeper.

    Pistorius, a double amputee born without fibulas in his legs, has trained hard to participate in the Olympics despite having to wear prosthetic legs. NBC's Mary Carillo reports.

    Pistorius, a four-time Paralympic gold medealist, will carry the flag for South Africa at Wednesday's Opening Ceremony. Coldplay will perform at the Closing Ceremony on September 9.

    "I believe these Games are going to change peoples' mindsets about disabilities," Pistorius told Reuters. "In the last two to three years I've seen a shift. For many years people have shunned disability, but I don't have anything in life I'm not able to do. I don't think of my disability, I think of my ability."

    Sixteen countries are competing for the first time. Among them, Haiti will make its debut with two athletes competing in track and field.

    This is the story of two paralympians from Haiti - a nation which is competing in the games for the first time. It's a country where disability is stigmatized and those who are disabled are shunned. ITV's Lewis Vaughan Jones reports on two pioneers who want to overcome prejudice and fill their nation with pride.

    British broadcaster Channel 4 will show 150 hours of programming and about 350 hours more online and across three temporary on-demand channel.

    The International Paralympic Committee predicts that, adding together viewers on each of the 11 days of competition, the total audience figure for the London Paralympics will reach 4 billion.

    It said that four years ago in Beijing, a total overall audience of around 3.8 billion in 80 countries watched the 2008 Paralympics - including a total of 1.4 billion viewings in China across 11 days, 670 million in Japan and 439 million in Germany. Calculating figures in that way means individual viewers are counted several times.

    More coverage of the London Paralympics from NBC News

    The daughter of the founder of the Paralympics told NBC News that the record-breaking ticket sales and interest in the London event would have made her father "immensely proud."

    Of all the events that will be showcased in the Paralympics, few are as intriguing as blind soccer. ITN's Lewis Vaughan Jones met Team Great Britain captain David Clarke who explained how it works.

    Eva Loeffler said Ludwig "Poppa" Guttmann – a neurologist who pioneered the rehabilitation of paralyzed Second World War service members at a hospital near London – would have been "extremely pleased" at how the Games had captured the public imagination.

    The 79-year-old said it was "very appropriate, in a way" that so many veterans from the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts were taking part in this year's event. "Helping the military wounded was where it all began, after all," she said.

    London 2012: Who were the real winners, losers?

    Guttman, who fled Germany in 1933 after being persecuted by Hitler's Nazi regime, challenged medical orthodoxy at Stoke Mandeville hospital, north–west of London, by encouraging patients to play sports rather than accept their paralysis.

    Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images

    The Agitos symbol of the Parlaympics has replaced the Olympic rings on London's iconic Tower Bridge.

    When London hosted the Summer Olympics in 1948, he created the Stoke Mandeville Games involving just 16 competitors. In the years that followed, he built his competition into the parallel Paralympic Games.

    This year's event will feature 4,200 athletes from 166 teams competing in 20 sports.

    Although Guttman died in 1980, Loeffler has continued his work, becoming a key figure in disabled sport – and has accepted an honorary role as mayor of the Paralympic Athletes' Village at the Olympic Park in East London.

    'Second-class citizens': Wheelchair user's fury at Paralympics over seating

    Lt. Brad Snyder, blinded by an IED explosion in Afghanistan, is now training for the London 2012 Paralympics.

    One of Guttman's dreams was that disabled athletes would ultimately compete alongside their able-bodied counterparts – a wish that came true last month with Pistorius' historic participation at the Olympics.

    "He would have regarded that as a great moment, I'm sure," Loeffler said.

    How to watch the Paralympics from the U.S.

    • The International Paralympic Committee will live stream more than 780 hours of events.
    • NBC Sports Network will air one-hour highlight shows on September 4, 5, 6, and 11. All NBC and NBC Sports Network Paralympic highlight shows and specials will re-air on Universal Sports Network and www.UniversalSports.com.
      Check your local listings for channel info.
    • NBC will broadcast a 90-minute special from 2-3:30 p.m. ET on September 16.
    • The United States Olympic Committee has created a YouTube channel dedicated to the Games.
    • The U.S. Paralympic Team will also provide in-depth coverage of Team USA on its website.

    Fahim Rahimi, is Afghanistan's only competitor at the Paralympics. He lost his leg in a land mine accident when he was just 12, but tonight the powerlifter is carrying the Afghan flag into the Olympic stadium. Jonathan Rugman, Britain's Channel 4 news reports.

    More London 2012 coverage from NBC News:

     

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    NBC News' Alastair Jamieson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  • Table tennis Paralympian to fulfill Olympic dream, too

    Courtesy Natalia Partyka

    "I dream about achieving in the Olympics what I've achieved in the Paralympics. But I still have a long road ahead of me," said Natalia Partyka, who will compete in both the Olympics and Paralympics this summer.

    By Suzanne Rozdeba

    Natalia Partyka was 7 years old the first time she followed her big sister Sandra to a table tennis hall in the seaside city of Gdansk, Poland. Born without her right hand and forearm, she gripped a paddle in her left hand, learned to bounce the ball off her right upper arm, and found her calling.

    Natalia Partyka said it will take time for attitudes toward the Paralympics to change.

    “Soon my sister’s trainer was telling me to come along to practice with my sister. It really excited me. We would play at home, bouncing the ball against walls and on the kitchen table. I never separated from my paddle,” Partyka told TODAY.com in Polish from her hometown. “I just can’t imagine my life without tennis. I think it would be boring. Maybe I wouldn’t be doing anything. Maybe I would just be sitting at home.”

    With the support of her family, the spunky 22-year-old not only learned to embrace her disability, but became one of an elite group of athletes to compete in both the Olympics and Paralympics. She’s traveling to London to represent Poland in the Olympics (she turns 23 on July 27, the day of opening ceremonies) and in the Paralympics in August, competing in the women’s singles and women’s team events.

    As a young girl, she dreamed of competing in the Olympics, but she wasn’t sure she could be good enough, and she worried about encountering the hurdles faced by Paralympians in Poland. “It’s much easier for disabled athletes to compete than it was five or 10 years ago, but the Paralympics is still treated differently from the Olympics. There’s a lot less money and sponsors in the Paralympics, so clubs don’t have the funding needed for systematic training and tournament travel,” said Partyka, who is ranked 68th by the International Table Tennis Federation. “It will take time for the Polish mentality to change. Many people think, ‘It’s not sports; it’s rehabilitation.’ But the Paralympics are competitions of professional sports.”

    Natalia Partyka's training regimen leaves little room for downtime, vacations or a love life.

    It was her father Andrzej who pushed her to face her disability head on, driving her to every practice and drilling it into her head that table tennis came first.

    “I was 7 and wanted to play with friends. But my dad made sure I was practicing every day,” she said. “The trainers said I could have a future as a competitor. I didn’t take it seriously. It turned out they were right.”

    In 2000, she competed in the Paralympics in Sydney. She was 11 years old. “I was only a child, but I qualified quickly. I lost, but I remember thinking, ‘In four years, I want to go to Athens.’ ”

    Her grueling practice sessions would include tactical and physical training, running, spinning and swimming, and arm muscle strengthening. “Some people think we just stand there and hit back the ball. In reality, it takes hard work. We also analyze opponents. It’s like chess; you’re always thinking about your next move. Every ball is different and you have to be ready,” she said. “Because I don’t have my right arm, sometimes I have to spend more time than others with physical conditioning.”

    Her training and determination paid off. In 2004, she traveled to the Paralympics in Athens and brought home gold and silver medals. “It was a turning point in my life,” she said. It was then she began to believe she could qualify for the Olympics, and in 2008, competed in the Olympics and Paralympics in Beijing. She again won gold and silver medals at the Paralympics and was awarded The Order of Polonia Restituta, among Poland’s highest honors. “I dream about achieving in the Olympics what I’ve achieved in the Paralympics. But I still have a long road ahead of me,” she said.

    Her tight training schedule leaves little room for downtime, vacations, or a love life. “No, I don’t have a boyfriend, so I don’t have anything to reveal,” she said, laughing. “I wouldn’t say I’m looking very hard. I believe you can’t force yourself to look for your other half. But, maybe someone will appear.”

    For now, Partyka is focused on the one dream shared by all Olympians: hearing her home country’s national anthem play while up on the podium with a medal around her neck. “There is nothing more beautiful than standing on the highest podium and listening to ‘Dabrowski’s Mazurka,’ ” Poland’s national anthem, Partyka said. “To hear that anthem, it would all have so much meaning. It’s a beautiful moment where time stands still. That’s why it’s worth fighting, and worth the sacrifice.”

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  • London bound: Blinded warrior to represent U.S. at 2012 Paralympics

    Dan Koeck for msnbc.com

    Blind swimmer Tharon Drake, right, seeks the hand of fellow swimmer Lt. Bradley Snyder to congratulate him on winning the 400-meter freestyle event in record time on Thursday at the 2012 U.S. Paralympics Swimming Trials in Bismarck, N.D. Snyder earned a spot on Team USA's swim team for the Paralympics later this summer in London.

    By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

    London is calling for Lt. Brad Snyder.

    The former Navy bomb defuser, who last September lost both eyes in an Afghan explosion, formally gained a roster spot Sunday on the U.S. Paralympic team bound for England, after swimming what he agreed was the race of his life.


    “I’m super excited,” said Snyder, 28. “Normally, I’m a little too prideful to admit I am nervous before a race. But I was a little nervous. There was a pretty sizable uncertainly” that he would swim well enough to qualify.

    To earn a ticket to London later this summer, Snyder needed to swim at least 41 seconds faster than his previous best in his top event, the 400-meter freestyle. In competitive swimming, where outcomes usually are measured in tenths of seconds, 41 seconds is an eternity.

    But Snyder didn’t simply meet his goal. He demolished it, going 54 seconds faster than he ever had since losing his sight. Snyder clocked a 4:35.62 – now the current, world-best time at that distance for fully blind swimmers.

    Need more context? That time was just 1.5 seconds behind the mark he posted at that distance while swimming for the Naval Academy seven years ago, when he could see the lane lines, the competition and, most importantly, the wall.

    Editor's note: This is the third installment that chronicles Lt. Brad Snyder's efforts to earn a spot on Team USA's roster for the 2012 London Paralympics. Read the first story here and read the second story here.

    Lucky No. 12
    Still, he had to wait until Sunday morning when the U.S. Paralympic swimming coaches announced the 14 names on the American men’s roster. To hear the news, hundreds of athletes, family members and coaches packed an academic hall at Bismarck State College, host of the meet. Dozens more people couldn’t be seated and waited for news while standing in a nearby hallway. Eleven names already had been read before Snyder finally heard his.

    He stood, felt a massive wave of emotion rising in his throat and then walked, led via one arm by his brother, Mitchell, toward most of the rest of the men’s team already gathered at the front of the room.

    Slideshow: Blinded warrior has visions of gold

    Lt. Brad Snyder lost his sight in an IED explosion in Afghanistan last September. The Navy officer is now training to represent the U.S. at the London 2012 Paralympics.

    Launch slideshow

    “As I was walking him over, I was just staring down at the floor. I didn’t want look at anyone because I thought I was going to cry,” said Mitchell Snyder. “I was mostly thinking how far he’s come since September. I couldn’t have been prouder.”

    At the swimming trials, Mitchell served as his brother’s “tapper” – a person assigned to touch a blind swimmer on the head or shoulder with a walking cane to warn him or her that the wall is near and that a flip turn or a finishing kick is needed. No other communication is allowed between the tapper and a swimmer.

    “The moment his name was announced everyone erupted and I guess he got a standing ovation,” said Mitchell Snyder, 25. “He couldn’t see it. And I didn’t want to see it because I thought I was going to lose it.”

    Snyder joins a rising corps of wounded U.S. servicemen and servicewomen who will again battle for their nation overseas – this time as Paralympians vying for gold medals in track, cycling, archery, wheelchair tennis and an array of other sports. More than 30 active-duty and retired soldiers and sailors are expected to make the 2012 American Paralymic team – double the number that competed for Team USA at the Beijing Paralympic Games four years ago.

    Golden favorite
    “You can look at it and say, unfortunately, we’re having a lot of guys hurt. But at the same time we’re having a lot of guys hurt who are finding relevancy in going out there and succeeding post-injury,” Brad Snyder said. “We’re finding a way to get past, finding a way to strive for success just the way we were in the military.

    “After joining the military, you want to be the best in the world at your job because it means life or death. (After injury) we’re stripped of the ability to do that the way we used to do. But we can still find an avenue through elite competition.”

    Lt. Brad Snyder, blinded by an IED explosion in Afghanistan, is now training for the London 2012 Paralympics.

    This week, Snyder will return to his intern job at a Baltimore software company. And he will continue training at a Baltimore aquatic center with his coach, Brian Loeffler, in preparation for the London Games. At the 2012 Paralympics, he also will be considered a front runner for a gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle. At the Bismarck trials, Snyder swam that event in 57.75 seconds – now the current, world-best time for blind athletes.

    But he’ll never forget, he said, his very first race in Bismarck – the chase that offered Snyder his first solid proof that he could, once again, be the best in the world at something.

    With an entry time of 5:29, Snyder wasn’t fully sure he could finish close to the 4:43 mark held by Spaniard Enhamed Enhamed – formerly the holder of the record in the 400-meter freestyle. Among blind swimmers, Enhamed has been a giant for years, collecting four gold medals at the Beijing Paralympics.

    Unforgettable performance
    Last Thursday morning, amid the preliminary heat for that same event, Mitchell Snyder glanced at the pool clock several times from his tapper position as his brother churned his arms and kicked his feet. 

    “But I was at the finishing end, so I had to make sure he was going to hit the wall safe and I couldn’t watch the clock when he touched,” Mitchell Snyder said. “Earlier in the race, though, it became abundantly clear during the first hundred meters, and the second hundred and the third hundred that, unless something drastically wrong happened, we had a No. 1 time in the world on our hands.”

    “They’re strict in what the tapper can or can’t say,” Brad Snyder added. “So when I finished, I didn’t know what my time was. I can’t look at the scoreboard. And none of the people in front of the (starting) blocks can tell me. But I was fortunate that the announcer of the meet – and only by virtue of the fact that I was the first one to the wall – announced the time, 4:39. I kind of heard it. And I thought, 4:39, wow that’s kind of fast.”

    Knowing he had a world-best time already tucked away in the prelim, Snyder said he was able to relax and swim the event’s final race that night much more freely.

    But again, after he touched the wall at the finish, he didn’t know how he had fared.

    Then somebody – somebody who was sitting behind the blocks – and I don’t even know who it was, whispered to me, “4:35!” I had shaved four more seconds off my time. They weren’t supposed to tell me. But I could definitely hear the excitement in their voice.”

    Bill Briggs is a frequent contributor to msnbc.com and author of “The Third Miracle.” 

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  • Shot in the dark: Blinded sailor aims for Paralympic Games in London

    Lt. Brad Snyder, blinded by an IED explosion in Afghanistan, is now training for the London 2012 Paralympics.

    By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

    Lt. Brad Snyder slices through the watery warmth with powerful movements and methodical rhythm. Each arm stroke is tallied, each breath measured as he glides forward in a sharp, precise line. He knows that a coach is watching, that a big clock is ticking, that a concrete wall is looming.

    He sees none of it.


    But away from the hard edges and surprise bumps of his dark, new world, Snyder senses, finally, he is gaining some serious ground.

    “In the pool, I feel efficient, comfortable, like I know what I’m doing. Such an amazing feeling,” he said. “Everything else, I’ve had to figure out all over again — like being a child again, and you suck at everything. It’s so refreshing to be good at something.”

    Blinded last September by a dirt-cloaked bomb in an Afghan ditch, Snyder, 28, slowly is creating a fresh vision for a life once blazed at high speeds and even higher tension. The former bomb defuser is, for now, interning at a Baltimore software company, staying at a corporate apartment and navigating with a cane. He also is logging 4,000 yards per day at a local pool and — this week — dreaming of London.

    Amanda Lucidon / LucidPix for msnbc.com

    Brad Snyder laughs with co-workers of RedOwl Analytics during their lunch break. Snyder, blinded last September by an IED blast in Afghanistan, is competing for a spot on Team USA for the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.

    On Thursday, Snyder competes at the U.S. Paralympic Swimming Trials in Bismarck, N.D., aiming to capture one of the 14 spots allotted for American male swimmers. A quick time in the 400 meter freestyle — about 4 minutes, 48 seconds, he and his coach estimate — will earn him a ticket to Great Britain this summer for the Paralympics, an international sports festival for disabled athletes held after the closing of the London Summer Games, using the Olympic venues.

    No sure thing
    Based on his practice times, Snyder believes he has strong shot at hitting — or nearing — his 4:48 goal on Thursday.

    “I’m very hesitant to say,” Snyder said. “I don’t want to jinx myself.”

    Snyder is quick to emphasize, as well, that he is in no way a lock to make the American team. Unlike the U.S. Olympic swimming trials, where roster slots are handed to swimmers who win their designated distances at that critical meet, Paralympic spots are determined by how a swimmer’s personal best ranks against the top international times recorded since Jan. 1, 2011 at that distance — and within each disability category. That’s literally a world of pressure: the Navy officer versus the best blind swimmers on the planet.

    Slideshow: Blinded warrior has visions of gold

    Dan Koeck for msnbc.com

    Lt. Brad Snyder lost his sight in an IED explosion in Afghanistan last September. The Navy officer is now training to represent the U.S. at the London 2012 Paralympics.

    Launch slideshow

    One byproduct of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is a deeper talent field among American Paralympic hopefuls. Consequently, the competition to make Team USA is tighter in 2012 compared to prior years. About 220 athletes will comprise the 2012 U.S. Paralympic team roster bound for London. About 15 percent of them (roughly 33 men and women) will be military veterans and active-duty soldiers — most of those in track and field, said Beth Bourgeois, associate communications director for U.S. Paralympics.

    At the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, Team USA sent 16 athletes with military backgrounds, spanning wheelchair rugby, wheelchair tennis, track, rowing, archery, sitting volleyball, and cycling. Just one was a swimmer.

    Finding his groove
    “Part of getting an injury like this is the idea that you’ve lost a part of you, and now you are — for lack of a better word — weird. I can’t do things the way I used to do,” Snyder said. “It’s a hard hit to your confidence, a hard hit to who you are. So being able to excel at something, to do it very well, is huge in gaining your confidence back, and gaining back that piece of you that you lost.”

    It’s quite natural, actually, for Snyder to dive into the water to find himself. Back in his hometown of St. Petersburg, Fla., his father first coaxed him into a pool at a young age, back when Snyder’s smarts left him bored with schoolwork, often too chatty in class, and perhaps a bit directionless.

    “Brad was a little bit of a trouble maker when he was a kid and our dad was just looking for something for Brad to put some energy into, instead of just wandering on his own,” recalled Mitchell Snyder, the Navy officer’s 25-year-old brother.

    At first, the rigid discipline of swimming intrigued Brad Snyder. Soon, the sport consumed him. In high school, he helped his team capture conference and district championships, finishing second in the state of Florida during the 2000 and 2001 seasons.

    But his dad, Michael, had other lessons waiting for the oldest of his four children. The father routinely preached motions such as “leave something better than you found it” and “everything is about service to something bigger than yourself.” Snyder remembers how his father once spied a stray hamburger wrapper drifting through a McDonald’s parking lot. He instructed his son to pick it up simply because it was the proper thing to do.

    Those bits of parental wisdom ultimately inspired Snyder to seek to serve his country. He applied for an appointment to the Naval Academy. The coaches there were equally interested in the talented prep swimmer. Snyder was accepted in the fall of 2001 and by late 2002 he was swimming for Navy.

    American bad ass
    His initial pool style in college matched his high-octane personality: Storm off the blocks as hard and fast as possible and dare the other swimmers to try to keep up. He didn’t know how to pace himself — in the water or when it came time to choose a Navy career following his 2006 graduation. For active duty, he opted to become an explosive ordinance disposal officer, or EOD. Defusing bombs appealed to his problem-solving nature, and the job allowed him, occasionally, to swim.

    In Iraq and Afghanistan, where the anti-American weapon of choice often was and is an improvised explosive device, EODs were in high demand. Snyder was deployed to Iraq in October 2008, staying until March 2009. He was redeployed to Afghanistan in April last year.

    “The [EODs] are really the front line,” Mitchell Snyder said. “They might trip wires. Or, when trying to defuse a bomb, it might blow up in their face. Knowing that he was the first man to go and check things out really frightened me. His uniform had some extra level of protection but there was nothing on his face but sunglasses.

    “Every person on his team, from tip to toe, is a bad ass. And he fit right in with them.”

    The bomb that took his vision, however, was not one Brad Snyder ever saw. While rushing to help two Afghan soldiers wounded in an initial IED blast last Sept. 7, Snyder stepped on a second, hidden device in an irrigation ditch spanning a farm field.

    “My right eye was effectively popped, like a flower almost, and there were pieces of fragmentation that had gone into my left eye,” Snyder said. His face was burned and lacerated from chin to hairline. The rest of his body, however was untouched. He had one final moment of vision before the world permanently went pitch black. In that second, he looked down and saw that his arms and legs were still attached.

    Lucky to be alive
    A little more than a week later, at Bethesda Naval Hospital near Washington, D.C., doctors told Snyder they could do nothing to salvage his sight, not even restore a faint sense of light. His damaged eyes were surgically removed and replaced with prosthetics.

    “I knew the risks I was assuming. I knew I was very fortunate to be in that hospital bed and not in a coffin in the ground.  And I knew I could not control the past,” Snyder said.

    “At that point, I made a decision: OK, so now we move forward. How do I start to gain my independence back? How do I get to the bathroom? How do I feed myself? Where is the fork and spoon? I had to figure out how to eat spaghetti out of cup. That was the only way I knew how to eat it. But I was adamant: I want to do this myself.”

    By late October, Snyder needed a refuge of sorts from the walls he repeatedly smacked with his body and face while learning to walk with a cane. He stepped back into a pool and swam, pounding out a few hundred meters.

    The water and the strokes felt so natural, so normal, he ached to race. He playfully challenged non-competitive swimmers — yet opponents who nonetheless could see. He beat them. Next, Snyder wanted to take on other blind swimmers. The Paralympics, he knew, could offer him that chance. In Baltimore, he began training with a coach. He began kicking again.

    “I’m going to show people that I’m not going to let this beat me. I’m not going to let blindness build a brick wall around me. I am going to find a way forward.”

    COMING FRIDAY: How do you swim — and challenge world records — when you can’t see the lane dividers, your competitors or the finish line?

    Bill Briggs is a frequent contributor to MSNBC.com and author of “The Third Miracle.”

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  • Disabled visitors face high hurdles to London Olympics

    Courtesy of Laura Hamilton

    Laura Hamilton exits a double-decker bus in London.

    By Jennifer Carlile

    The Olympic and Paralympic Games — which London has promised will be the most accessible and inclusive ever — are just weeks away. All sports venues are fully equipped for disabled visitors, but many city-goers with physical impairments say they still feel like second-class citizens on public transport.

    “I am shocked at how disabled I am here; I have never felt so handicapped,” said Laura Hamilton, a 28-year-old American with muscular dystrophy living in London.

    “I’m scared to go out on my own,” said the Californian, who quit her job in San Francisco and moved to Britain in March “to see the world” before her condition deteriorates.

    Courtesy of Laura Hamilton

    Laura Hamilton in the handicapped section of a double-decker bus in London.

    The London Underground is by far the fastest way to get around the city, but with just a handful of stations in the historic heart of the capital offering step-free access, Hamilton said “it’s more of a novelty for wheelchair users.”

    All black cabs are accessible, but using taxis or a car as a primary form of transportation is prohibitively expensive for most residents, so wheelchair users rely heavily on buses.

    But Hamilton, who uses a small electric scooter, said that “most times the drivers don’t want to pull into the curb so I’m told I can’t get on at all.”

    Paralympian crawls off train
    Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, who won 11 gold medals for Great Britain in five Paralympic Games and is a board member of Transport for London (TFL), the city's group responsible for the transportation system, described how she recently had to crawl off a train. 

    “My train was late into Kings Cross Station and the station had pretty much closed and there was no one who came to get me,” said the parliamentarian and TV presenter, who was born with spina bifida.

    “So I got out of my chair, pushed my chair off, and crawled out of the train and got back into it,” she said.

    Despite that incident and other cases of being “forgotten” on long-distance trains, the athlete said the situation within London has improved greatly in recent years.

    Andrew Yates / AFP-Getty Images file

    Tanni Grey-Thompson waves to the crowd after her last-ever race in the T53 200 meters in 2007.

    “But people coming from countries like the U.S. and Canada will find it a bit more tricky,” she said.

    Dating back to 1863, the London Underground is the oldest metropolitan railway in the world. Disabled access renovations only began after a wheelchair ban was lifted less than 20 years ago.

    TFL, which is run by the mayor, scrapped its promise to make a quarter of stations step free by 2010 and a third by 2013.

    Now, 65 of the 270 stations have step free access from street to platform, but most of those still have a gap between the platform and train.

    Wheelchair access will be available at locations key to the Games — Stratford for the Olympic Park, Southfields for tennis at Wimbledon, and Green Park for equestrian events — but, not at the vast majority of tourist hot spots, including Piccadilly Circus, Notting Hill, and Covent Garden.

    Grey-Thompson said upgrades had to be chosen carefully as “it costs more than 100 million pounds to make a central London station wheelchair-accessible.”

    ‘Left to the side of the road’
    Meanwhile, the bus system was completely overhauled in 2007.

    “Our bus fleet is the most accessible fleet in the world — with every one of our 8,500 buses low-floor wheelchair-accessible and fitted with ramps,” said Wayne Trevor, Accessibility Manager for TFL. However, only 60 percent of bus stops are fully accessible.

    “We get a lot of complaints from wheelchair users left to the side of the road,” said Lianna Etkind, Campaigns and Outreach Coordinator for disabled rights group Transport for All.

    Californian Hamilton said she often feels like a “third-class citizen” as her husband begs drivers to let her on and one in four drive away without her.

    “Drivers are definitely required to pick up disabled passengers,” TFL said in an email response, adding that passengers are encouraged to lodge complaints which can result in driver retraining or dismissal.

    The installation of tactile paving and audio-visual displays has assisted blind and deaf passengers, but recession-induced staff cuts have made it harder to receive personal assistance.

    Carole Cherrington, a blind 43-year-old who has lived in London her entire life, took the Underground on her own for the first time in March. She said she had to rely on a stranger to get to her destination and found the journey “extremely distressing.”

    TFL has since provided her with a “travel buddy” free of charge, but she said: “I feel excluded by society in being able to get around independently; I hope having the Paralympics here will bring more awareness.”

    Michael Theobold, who is profoundly deaf, said that he had encountered dangerous situations when he couldn’t hear last-minute audio announcements.

    The 64-year-old former teacher recalled in an email interview that he was unable to hear a warning to move along the track at Marble Arch station.

    “There was a sudden surge of people and I was very nearly knocked off balance on to the electrified track,” he said.

    ‘An army of volunteers’
    Transport for London is eager to ensure that the Olympics run without a hitch.

    “An army of volunteers will be drafted in to assist our operations during Games time,” TFL said in an email.

    Scores of extra buses, manual track-to train ramps, and fast-response elevator engineers will also be brought in.

    Transport for All’s Etkind said she was hopeful that the extra resources would help disabled visitors get around the city successfully. 

    “It’s great that TFL is improving access to the Underground during the Olympics and Paralympics. But access and inclusion isn’t just for Games time, it’s for life,” she said.

    More: Londoners express hopes, frustrations as Olympics come to town 
    Now towering over London's Olympic Park: 'The Godzilla of public art'  

    Jennifer Carlile was a senior writer and editor for msnbc.com’s news team, enjoying nearly a decade of reporting from Great Britain, continental Europe, and her hometown of Honolulu, Hawaii. She is now a freelance writer living in London.