Olympic Training Center hosts clinic
Read more: Local, State, Community, Olympic Training Center, Blind, Visually Impaired, Judo, Paralympics, Danielle Leigh, Myles Porter, Christella Garcia, Colorado Springs
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Olympics coaches are beginning to build the next U.S. Judo Paralympics Team.
The Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs is hosting a judo clinic for blind and visually impaired athletes. Fourteen were selected to participate.
Their goal is to compete in the London Paralympics Games in 2012.
Judo is relatively new to the Paralympics. It was introduced for men in 1988 and for women in 2004.
The only real difference between sighted judo and blind judo is the starting point.
In sighted judo, fighters start about nine feet from each other. In blind judo, the pair begins by gripping the opponent.
"The one thing about judo is it lets everybody be equal," said 2008 Paralympian Myles Porter.
Many of these visually impaired athletes fight sighted judo players and win.
"It just makes me feel really liberated to be able to compete with them on their level," said Christella Garcia, who hopes to compete in 2012.
Garcia can only see light and shadows. But that doesn't stop her or anyone else here from excelling, partly because judo is based on maximum efficiency with minimal effort.
"That means using your partner's momentum against them so you don't have to see that you just have to feel that," Garcia said.
At this camp, Garcia will be working along side Porter, who can see, but with limited vision.
"What you see 100 feet away, definition and blurriness, is what I see seven to ten feet away."
Still, Porter is ranked number one in the nation for Paralympics Judo for 100 kilos, and fourth in the nation for sighted judo.
"One thing I can tell really kicks in is hearing," Porter said.
This camp is all about building those skills in preparation for the 2012 Paralympics.
"We're trying to create a bigger base of athletes. When you think about it everyone thinks the Olympics is so far away. No, the preparation begins now," said U.S. Olympic judo coach Eddie Liddie.
"My goal is to be the first person to compete at the Olympics and Paralympics in the same year in 2012 in London," Porter said.
"I'm dreaming of London, but I know I have a lot of work to obtain that goal," Garcia said.
At the end of this clinic all of the judo players will fight in the Mid-Winter Classic Saturday, February 28.
It will take place in Westminster, Colo., at Woodrow Wilson Academy. It goes from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
