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Sino-German exhibition highlights Paralympics spirit

Xinhua, August 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

With the Olympics having just kicked off in Rio, have you ever fantasized about racing against time in an Olympic sprint, pearls of perspiration running down your face, and snatching that coveted gold medal? Probably. How about doing the same while strapped to a wheelchair? Probably not.

At an exhibit "The Paralympics Spirit - From Heidelberg to Beijing" that opened on July 26 in the Olympic Training Center in Heidelberg, Germany, and runs through September, visitors can try out conventional and racing wheelchairs to get a better idea of what it is like to have impaired mobility.

Jointly organized by the Heidelberg Municipal Archives and the Beijing Municipal Archives, the exhibit looks back at Heidelberg's host role in the 1972 Paralympics and Beijing's host role in the 2008 Paralympics with display panels, historical photos and a short film on the Beijing Paralympics.

Next to staff from the Heidelberg and Beijing Municipal Archives and the Chinese Consulate in Frankfurt, some of the contemporary witnesses from the 1972 Heidelberg Paralympics were present for the opening ceremony, for example Hennes Luebbering, a wheelchair-bound athlete who proudly wore his medals to the opening.

Besides being a dignified platform for disabled athletes to compete with their peers, across the decades, the Paralympics have raised awareness of the everyday challenges people with disabilities face and even led to some positive changes.

Dr. Peter Blum, the director of the Heidelberg Municipal Archives, said the aim of the exhibit was not only a reflection on the past of the Paralympics, but more importantly a projection of a future vision - namely, the social inclusion of disabled people. He believed archives have a special role to play in this.

He suggested that archives should make their cultural heritage accessible to help achieve a solution to both contemporary and future problems. "One could say that today's archives have a socio-political task, so to say, a task that transcends borders and cultural barriers," Blum said. Endit