Inaudito: ¿Se cae o no se cae?

NoticiasCubanet Cuba

'Ghost Boy': The Story of a Young Man Trapped in His Body

By Alexa Keyes, Kate Snow and Wonbo Woo

It was 1988, and Martin Pistorius was a healthy 12-year-old boy growing up in South Africa when his life took an unexpected turn. Pistorius went home from school with a sore throat, and he never returned.

His body gradually weakened. He lost the ability to walk, to eat on his own and eventually, the ability to communicate. Doctors suspected some kind of neurodegenerative disease, but his case was a medical mystery. Martin's parents say doctors told them their son now had the intelligence of a three-month-old, and that they should take him home to die.

The last words he ever spoke: "When home?" 

But Pistorius didn't die. He spent more than a decade at home and in day-care centers. His parents were told he was unaware of the world around him, but about four years after he fell ill, Pistorius says he began to "wake up."

"For so many years, I was like a ghost. I could hear and see everything, but it was like I wasn't there. I was invisible," Pistorius told NBC News' Kate Snow with the help of a device that speaks the words he types into a computer.

"What really got to me was the complete and utter powerlessness," Pistorius said. "Every single aspect of your life is controlled and determined by someone else. They decide where you are, what you eat, whether you sit or lie down, in what position you lie in, everything."

Day after day, year after year, Pistorius was trapped in a body that wouldn't move, left with nothing but his own thoughts.

"I would literally live in my imagination," he said. "Sometimes to such an extent that I became almost oblivious to my surroundings." 

His family struggled to come to terms with his illness. One night, after his parents argued, his mother turned to her son and said, "I hope you die." She didn't think her son was there to hear it, but he was.

"It broke my heart, in a way," Pistorius said. "But at the same time, particularly as I worked through all the emotions. I felt only love and compassion for my mother."

But in 2001, there was new hope. A therapist at Pistorius' care center, Virna Van Der Walt, began to pick up on tiny signals that made her realize he was more aware than people thought.

"He had a sparkle in his eye, I could see he was understanding me," Van Der Walt wrote to NBC News' Kate Snow.

She urged his parents to take him for cognitive testing, and for the first time, Pistorius was able to show people that he understood.

"She was the catalyst who changed everything," Pistorius said. "Had it not been for her, I would probably either be dead or forgotten in a care home somewhere."

As his mind grew stronger, so did his body. Pistorius was given special equipment he could use to communicate, which, he says, changed everything.

"I don't think I will ever forget that feeling when my mom asked me what I'd like for supper and I said, 'Spaghetti Bolognese,' and then she actually made that," he said. "I know that must seem insignificant, but for me, that was amazing."

Pistorius had to relearn everything - from reading and socializing to making decisions for himself. He went to college, learned to drive, and even feel in love.

He married Joanna, who he met through his sister, in 2009, and they are hoping to start a family.

"It took a massive amount of work, blood, sweat and tears," he said. "But I am a different person today that I was 13 years ago."

Today, Pistorius works as a web designer. His story captured in an autobiography, "Ghost Boy," is on The New York Times best-seller list.

He's grateful for the little things, like being able to have a conversation or experiencing something for the first time. 

His message - don't overlook what's possible.

"Never underestimate the power of the mind, the importance of love and faith, and never stop dreaming," Pistorius said, adding one more piece of advice:

"Treat everyone with kindness, dignity, compassion and respect, irrespective of whether you think they understand or not."

               

             

             

Somebody has to change out a lightbulb at the top of a 1500' TV Tower

microsiervos

Somebody has to change out that lightbulb at the top of those tall TV towers!
This is tower climber Kevin Schmidt making the climb to the very top of the now inactive KDLT TV analog broadcast antenna near Salem, SD.
It was a beautiful fall day for a climb and the views are stunning! I would suggest watching at 1080 HD in full screen to get a small taste of the experience.

Prairie Aerial

Louis Zamperini: Unbroken at Sea and in a P.O.W. Camp, Made Whole by Christ

Breitbart

By Daniel J. Flynn

“I was too busy staying alive to think about dying,” World War II veteran Louis Zamperini told his son about his ordeal lost at sea and then locked up in a prisoner of war camp.

The famous runner’s real tests of endurance came the decade after his experience competing in the 5000 meters at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, when he floated at sea for a month-and-a-half and subsequently endured vicious beatings by a sadistic guard nicknamed “the Bird” during two years in Japanese captivity. Luke Zamperini tells Breitbart Sports, “These were my bedtime stories growing up.”

Luke Zamperini’s bedtime stories become everybody’s silver-screen stories on Christmas Day through Angelina Jolie’s cinematic adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken. The Zamp, owner of a record 4:08 mile as a collegian, retained exquisite timing long after he had hung up his track shoes. The Christian immortalized as a celluloid hero on Christmas, like the patriot passing days before this past Fourth of July, shows that death doesn’t kill a man’s timing.

It often replaces the substance of a man with a symbol. But the symbolism of a Christmas Day release of Unbroken makes it hard to miss the substance of Louis Zamperini. He ran the 5000 meters in the Olympics for a few minutes in the mid-1930s and suffered in a POW camp for a couple of years as Americans assumed him dead during the mid-1940s. He spread Jesus Christ’s gospel for more than six decades.

www.people.com

Like Christ, Zamperini lived past his obituary and figured prominently in a bestselling book. The comparisons don’t go much further for the life celebrated in the pews on Thursday and the one celebrated in the movie-house aisles. The former juvenile delinquent drank with zeal, hastily scheduled barroom boxing matches with unwitting, conscripted opponents, and projected the bitterness in his soul upon the world immediately following the Second World War.

“He was a vengeful man,” Luke Zamperini informs. “The Bird beat him mercilessly for over two years. My dad suffered from what’s today referred to as post-traumatic stress disorder. He was having nightmares of the Bird beating him that inevitably ended with him strangling the life out of the Bird.” Zamperini longed to return to Japan “to finish him off,” concedes his son.

Instead of squeezing the life out of the Bird, Billy Graham infused new life into Zamperini. “Hearing Reverend Graham speak reminded him of the promises on the life raft and in the prison camp that he had made to God,” Luke Zamperini tells Breitbart Sports of the violent and boozed-out postwar version of his dad. “He felt he hadn’t lived up to his side of the bargain.”

“His hatred for the Bird wasn’t hurting the Bird one bit,” son says of father. “It was destroying Louis Zamperini.” The bitter veteran put down the bottle and picked up the Bible. The sleep that followed the Olympian’s close encounter of the Billy Graham kind, his son explains, resulted in “the first night he did not have that nightmare and he did not have that nightmare for the rest of his life.”

Whereas others might have wished not to revisit the painful events, Zamperini used them for inspiration to start an outdoorsman camp for boys and to speak to groups about the force that saved his life. “He made a living talking about it,” Luke Zamperini notes. “He was a famous American athlete who seemingly came back from the dead. He was given the key to every city.” Holding in his war story didn’t work for Zamperini. Letting it out did.

Zamperini’s saga includes the highs of running in the Olympics and the lows of cleaning a pig sty with his bare hands. It’s an amazing tale of survival, evading strafing Japanese planes and capturing food on the raft with the primitive hunting tools available at the end of his arms. It’s more importantly a story, like the story whose beginnings Christians celebrate today, of redemption. In a life of service to his savior, Zamperini embodied the central message of his faith.

Louis Zamperini enjoyed a Hollywood ending. It emanated from enjoying a Christian life. Readers and now viewers of Unbroken marvel at the better-than-fiction quality to the miler’s tale of superhuman endurance. The story’s greatness surely stems from the protagonist’s awareness of the greatest story ever told.

Niño cubano sobrevive a arponazo que le atravesó la cabeza [+Fotos]

juventud rebelde 

BAYAMO, Granma.— Miles no lo pueden creer todavía: Yoan Alex Torres López, de 15 años, está vivo luego de que un arpón de 60 centímetros atravesara de lado a lado su cabeza y le ocasionara un coma profundo, del que logró salir milagrosamente.

El adolescente, del barrio de Manta, en la periferia de la cabecera de Pilón, provincia de Granma, se disponía a pescar junto a un primo el pasado 14 de noviembre cuando la escopeta de aire, acomodada en una balsa, se disparó por accidente y la flecha de acero quedó incrustada en su cráneo.

El paciente antes de la complicada intervención quirúrgica, que duró tres horas y 45 minutos. Foto: Cortesía del Hospital Carlos Manuel de Céspedes.

«El niño iba a subir a la balsa cuando se produjo el accidente, cayó al fondo del mar, como a un metro y medio de profundidad; su primo, que es como dos años mayor que él, creyó que había muerto. No sabía cómo sacarlo. Por suerte en ese momento llegó otro primo, de 20 años, logró rescatarlo y montarlo en un auto para llevarlo al hospital de Pilón», contó a JR el campesino Alexis Torres Sánchez, padre de Yoan.

Foto: Cortesía del Hospital Carlos Manuel de Céspedes.

Desde esa institución fue trasladado al hospital provincial Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, en Bayamo, en el que ya estaban creadas las condiciones para una complejísima intervención quirúrgica.

«Se trataba de un traumatismo cráneo-encefálico notablemente grave. El paciente llegó en coma profundo, conservaba los reflejos de tallo cerebral muy tenues», narró el especialista de primer grado en Medicina General Integral (MGI) y en Neurocirugía Maikel García Chávez, de 34 años, uno de los que participó en la operación.

Foto: Cortesía del Hospital Carlos Manuel de Céspedes.

La cirugía de emergencia, que se extendió casi por cuatro horas, resultó difícil en extremo pues el arpón «tiene gran capacidad perforante, penetró por la región temporal derecha con orificio de salida parietal izquierdo alto; es decir, perforó el cráneo, las membranas envolventes del cerebro y el cerebro en sus dos hemisferios, y salió contra lateral, afectando estructuras nerviosas y vasculares», agregó el galeno, quien ponderó el trabajo de todos los profesionales de salud que participaron en el traslado del niño, el acto quirúrgico y los cuidados post operatorios.

Foto: Cortesía del Hospital Carlos Manuel de Céspedes.

También acotó que la intervención implicó realizar un cuidadoso cierre para dar continuidad anatómica al organismo después de lesiones vasculares y nerviosas.

Foto: Cortesía del Hospital Carlos Manuel de Céspedes.

García Chávez, graduado en 2004 y quien operó a Yoan junto al también especialista en MGI y en Neurocirugía Osmán Ramírez Tasé, de 32 años,  explicó a este diario que este tipo de traumatismo tan severo tiene cerca de un 98 por ciento de pronóstico fatal, según los reportes conocidos internacionalmente.

«Incidió mucho en la supervivencia del niño que nadie moviera el arpón, que es una de las recomendaciones esenciales para este tipo de situaciones: jamás debe retirarse el objeto penetrante antes del momento quirúrgico», dijo.

Afortunadamente tampoco hubo infección, algo posible porque el arpón —que hubo de cortarse con una segueta— es de acero oxidable y tenía una espoleta de diez centímetros, la cual se había impactado dentro del cerebro, señaló.

Agregó que Yoan tuvo una evaluación favorable desde el principio porque al tercer día de la operación le fue retirada la ventilación artificial, al cuarto tuvo apertura ocular, al séptimo obedecía órdenes sencillas y al décimo «logró hablar con coherencia».

El neurocirujano apuntó que, en la historia de la especialidad en la localidad, este es el segundo caso recordado de un objeto penetrante en la cabeza, aunque el primero no fue tan profundo y complejo.

Probablemente Maikel se refiera al paciente Walberto Vázquez, del poblado de Babiney, en Cauto Cristo, quien el 4 de marzo de 1998 vivió la amarga experiencia de ver un machetín cuatro centímetros dentro de su cráneo. Entonces fue operado en una hora y 45 minutos por un grupo de especialistas encabezados por el doctor Guillermo Sánchez Paneque.

Foto: Cortesía del Hospital Carlos Manuel de Céspedes.

Desde su casa en el barrio de Manta, Yoan Torres contestó telefónicamente a JR que fue dado de alta hace dos días, se encuentra bien, «con mucho deseos de comer» y que lo han ido a visitar «una pila de personas».

Su madre, Anabel López, detalló que el muchacho tiene como secuelas afectaciones en el lado izquierdo, algunos reflejos borrosos y un sueño intranquilo por momentos, «pero tiene tremendo ánimo y deseos de vivir».

Por su parte, García Chávez expuso que hay optimismo entre los médicos, «porque el cerebro de un niño goza de mucha capacidad de regeneración».

Foto: Rafael Martínez Arias.

La madre del adolescente, una humilde ama de casa, remarcó que está infinitamente agradecida a «todos los que se preocuparon y salvaron a mi hijo, quien ha vuelto a vivir por milagros que solo se dan en Cuba».

Alex Morales - Escaping Cuba On A Windsurfer

Boards Windsurfing

Amy Carter

Alex Morales journeyed from Cuba to America… by windsurfer. This is the story of his brave journey across the ocean and to becoming a respected board shaper. 

Images and words by Timothy Venn.

 

Like many of Miami’s population, Alex Morales’s life started in the Communist dictatorship of Cuba – but his journey since has been unlike any other. Fascinated by his first sight of a windsurfer as an eight year-old boy, he knew he was bitten by the windsurfing bug that was sweeping the world. However, with no windsurfing opportunities for kids, he had to make do with sailing dinghies and begging the local windsurfers for a try on their boards.

This is when young Alex showed the first signs of his improvisational, ‘get-it-done’ attitude when he started to build his own kid’s windsurfer. “I started building Styrofoam boards and bamboo masts and booms. It was jury-rigged gear like a typical third-world kid – but it was the only gear I could get for my size.” Finally, a few years later, he was able graduate to real boards, and his dedication and persistence paid off when he won the 1987 Youth Event and was selected to be in the Cuban Olympic windsurfing team in 1989.

For many windsurfers and Cubans alike, this might have been a dream come true – being paid (albeit a modest stipend) to windsurf. However, the life of a state sponsored windsurfer had limited appeal to Alex, who was acutely aware of the artificial bubble he was living in – limited to state events with other communist countries. “You might be in the best shape – but if you don’t compete internationally, you can never be your best technically.” Word was flooding in from the US and Europe through windsurfing magazines, TV and radio of the exciting developments in equipment and competitions. “My biggest influence back then was the windsurfing magazines that made windsurfing look so colorful and hardcore.”

Alex Morales Windsurfing Cuban Olympic Team 1992

Alex knew what he had to do – but leaving Cuba freely was not an option, so he plotted his departure with the only option left – as a ‘Balsero’, making the 90 mile journey to Florida and freedom by raft. Even as an expert windsurfer, he realized that windsurfing to Florida would be physically exhausting and dangerous, so he tried leaving twice with home-made rafts powered by outboard engines. After both attempts failed, he finally turned to his last and least favored option – by windsurfer. “The windsurfing option was always in the back of my mind, but I knew that it would be exhausting – perhaps beyond my limits.”

In order for this highly risky enterprise to succeed he knew it would take some luck and careful planning, so over the next 18 months he studied the weather, the ocean conditions and currents to figure out the optimal time of year to make his attempt. April 25th 1994 was picked for the consistent east winds, ocean current and moderate weather. Making precise calculations of the wind speed and currents, they set their heading to hit the Florida peninsula precisely in the center of the Florida Keys – avoiding the potentially fatal mistake of going out too far east out into the Atlantic Ocean or west into the Gulf of Mexico. Failing to make landfall in South Florida would have meant that there would have been little chance of completing the journey before exhaustion and dehydration would have taken its toll. He also carefully selected his board – the relatively wide and floaty Bic Reggae with a retractable dagger-board that allowed him to also easily sail upwind in light winds. Added to that, a custom sail that he made out of a 7.0 and smaller wave sail gave him low end power – but would still be manageable in the gusts.

Alex and two fellow windsurfers sailed from Cuba, avoiding the Cuban Coast Guard – taking over eighteen hours to reach US coastal waters where they were picked up by the Governor of Florida’s boat that was coming back from a fishing trip. Exhausted but elated on successfully making the trip, Alex got a call from Eugene (Eugenio Roman, who windsurfed out of Cuba on a last minute whim) to go windsurfing with him in Miami that same day. Alex couldn’t believe it! “I said like “!@#$ you, that’s the last thing I want to do right now! We did actually go windsurfing with him a couple of days later.”

“Windsurfing in Miami was like coming home” says Alex, “Maybe because I had so many friends and family here – I felt like Cuba had become a foreign country and Miami was where I was meant to be all my life.” However, beyond getting to Florida, Alex had no specific plans. Just being free was enough for him for that moment – but that did not mean he stayed idle and he worked hard to assimilate himself into the American culture, as well as becoming a licensed electrical contractor.

Alex’s involvement for the remainder of the 1990’s was minimal. “The US windsurfing media and industry became focused on wave sailing in the late 1990’s – which was something we cannot do here in South Florida, so I was not involved in windsurfing then. It was only when Formula windsurfing became big in the 2003 onwards did I get more involved again. I saw pros like Micah Buzianis and Antoine Albeau on Formula boards – and realized that it allowed windsurfing events to happen in all conditions – giving windsurfing a new life”

 

Local competitions started up again and Alex got back into competing at event after event. “Everything came back when I realized that the events were not so wind dependent on Formula and I was fired up – this is amazing – this is what I was made to do. Then I thought, let’s make so more events and took the ball and started running with it.” Soon he had some big names like Micah Buzianis and Jimmy Diaz putting Miami on the windsurfing competition map. Getting sponsorship was tough – so Alex was forced to front most of the costs himself in the hope that the event generated enough revenue to cover them. “If I had to put the money out of my pocket and possibly lose or win, I still did it – the most important thing is that windsurfing is still alive and Miami is on the map.”

Alex then branched out into spreading the word by creating websites, Windsurfingtour.com and Miamiwindsurfing.com. “Facebook and social media websites have become the go-to platform now for this, replacing websites. Nowadays you have 15 seconds to catch someone’s attention and social media does that” Undeterred with his inability to get sponsorship for his events, Alex launched into a new venture – becoming a board and fin manufacturer himself. And thus, the Tillo International brand (http://tillo-international.com) was born. Alex has created a line of custom Formula, Slalom and SUP boards – hand shaped in his own workshop. Drawing customers from South Florida windsurfing community and his website, Alex’s brand is working on building a significant fan base.

 

With many industry players decrying the demise of windsurfing, Alex is not ready to give up the fight. Even when windsurfing as an Olympic event was threatened in favor of kiteboarding, Alex joined a grass-roots effort to have it re-established, resulting in a surprising 180-degree turnaround by the ISAF committee to overturn their original decision. “It’s all about participation, whether it is at the international level or by the local communities. It’s hard at the local level, as amateurs feel insecure about their ability to compete – but keeping these events going keeps the incentive for the amateur windsurfer to get involved and keep windsurfing and buying gear. Windsurfing dies when people don’t put their time and resources into it. The water sports industry’s attention has shifted to kite boarding and SUP – but that will decline in the future too, if the long-term focus is not there.”

“Miami is one of the best cities in the US for these kinds of events right now. Our Slalom event had 53 competitors, including Micah Buzanis which is amazing – considering a PWA event can only have 40+ participants.” Building on this success, Alex has organized his next Slalom Event on November 4th 2014 in Virginia Key in Miami. He is also confident about the future. “Another exciting development is the new generation of kids with the Bic Techno Class having the biggest sailing fleet ever (with more participation than any sailing class) of over 400 kids in the last World Championship. These kids will go onto RSX and Slalom and carry on the flag of windsurfing. Also, new developments with boards and gear have made the sport faster and more exciting, which can now also be captured by low cost technology such as GoPro and drones – so there is no reason why more people cannot be turned on to this incredible sport.”

Read more at http://boards.mpora.com/features/alex-morales-escaping-cuba-on-a-windsurfer.html#vvyZLIjBMcS1Ficc.99

Daredevil Nick Wallenda Breaks Tightrope Records

Associated Press

Beer delivery man stops convenience store robbery

Balsero nada 12 horas para abrazar a su padre en tierra americana

Maria Elvira Salazar

Alan Eustace: nuevo récord de altitud en salto con paracaídas, 41.150 metros

OfficialTVCommercials

Microsiervos 

Se me hace aún un poco difícil de creer que no se haya filtrado nada hasta el momento de realizar el salto, pero por lo visto ayer Alan Eustace, un ejecutivo de Google, batió el récord de Felix Baumgartner en cuanto altitud desde la que realizó un salto en paracaídas, al menos según se puede leer en Parachutist’s Record Fall: Over 25 Miles in 15 Minutes

En concreto, tras ascender durante un par de horas colgado de un globo, se desprendió de este a los 41.150 metros de altitud, tomando tierra un cuarto de hora después.

A diferencia de Baumgartner, en lugar de ir dentro de una cápsula Eustace iba colgado «a pelo» del globo, metido en un traje presurizado y aislado similar al de un astronauta.

Lo que no consiguió fue superar la velocidad del austríaco, pues aunque también rompió la barrera del sonido, «sólo» alcanzó los 1.322 kilómetros por hora frente a los 1.342 de Baumgartner.

Hay más información acerca del salto en StratEx, de Stratospheric Explorer, Explorador Estratosférico.

Quiero ver, de todas formas, la confirmación del récord por parte de la Federación Aeronáutica Internacional antes de acabar de creérmelo.

(@MiguelMorenatti vía Esaotra).

Teen Pilot on Around-World Flight Found Dead in Samoa

                
           

Read on NBC News.com >>

Fallece la legendaria Olga Kotelko, veterana trituradora de récords

es una verguenza que los medios de comunicacion canadienses, las autoridades deportivas y tanto entusiasta libelo propulsor de la liberacion del consumo de la marihuana y del world pride de estos dias, no hayan encontrado tiempo para rendir homenaje a quien es un ejemplo para los canadienses de todas las edades. una sola y breve nota a ojo de aguila ha sido ha todo lo que los ocupadisimos misters and mistress le han dedicado, mientras el mundo le rinde homenajes. ashamed of you.
----------------------------
TodayandForever Videos

EL PAÍS

Alejandro Prado
Olga Kotelko se calzó unas zapatillas de atletismo por primera vez a los 77 años. Competitiva por genética, no se conformó con dar paseos a ritmo ligero como aconsejan los médicos a personas de su edad. Ella quería correr, correr de verdad. Se convirtió en una máquina de ganar medallas y de destrozar récords en atletismo para personas mayores. Compitió hasta que una hemorragia cerebral la derrotó el pasado martes y falleció a los 95 años.
Más de 500 medallas y 26 récords mundiales son cifras que impresionan. Más aún si se sabe que esos triunfos se cosecharon entre los 77 y 95 años. Y más aún cuando la protagonista no había practicado nunca el atletismo. Porque a Olga Kotelko (Vonda, Canadá, 1919) lo que le gustaba era el béisbol. De joven no le importaba recorrerse varios kilómetros para jugar cuando salía de la escuela y luego volver a casa.
Criada en una granja del interior de Canadá, era la séptima de 11 hijos de un matrimonio de origen ucranio. Desde muy pequeña compaginó la escuela con las tareas domésticas y en su tiempo libre jugaba al softball y béisbol. Se graduó en la escuela para profesores en 1941 y comenzó a enseñar en una escuela de Vonda. Su matrimonio se rompió en 1957, cuando estaba embarazada de su segunda hija. Se mudó con su hermana a la Columbia Británica y se sacó un título universitario mientras criaba a sus vástagos.
La carrera en la enseñanza de Olga continuó hasta 1984, el año de su jubilación. Hasta entonces nunca se planteó la práctica regular de deporte, pero una vez que tuvo tiempo libre retomó el softball. Kotelko jugaba con dedicación pero con sus más de 70 años los reflejos y agilidad empezaban a fallarle en el juego.
A los 77 una compañera de equipo le aconsejó el atletismo en pista y Olga se puso a ello. Contrató los servicios de una entrenadora húngara que le apretó las tuercas, cosa que gustó a la casi octogenaria deportista. Se sometió a interminables y agotadoras sesiones de gimnasio y entrenamiento en pista y sus músculos respondieron de forma asombrosa. Entonces decidió competir.
En los campeonatos de atletismo para gente mayor los veteranos deportistas se dividen en franjas de edad. Hay muchos sexagenarios, septuagenarios y octogenarios. A partir de los 90 los participantes escasean. Olga Kotelko arrasó en cada franja en la que compitió. De hecho, sus marcas a menudo eran mejores que las de atletas más jóvenes.
Además de un ejemplo de longevidad, Olga lo fue también de polivalencia. Podía correr, saltar, lanzar… Así arrasó en categorías atléticas tan dispares como los 100 y 200 metros lisos, salto de altura y longitud o lanzamiento de martillo y jabalina. Y en todas ganaba. Cientos de medallas y 26 récords —gran parte de ellos entre los 90 y 95 años— cuantifican su éxito en el deporte.
El fenómeno de Kotelko avivó el debate sobre los efectos del ejercicio de alta intensidad en los mayores. Cualquier galeno aconsejaría hacer deporte a un octogenario o nonagenario, pero Olga machacaba sus músculos y estos se fortalecieron a la vez que se ralentizó su envejecimiento. La atleta fue objeto de estudio y los expertos concluyeron que su caso era excepcional: sus riñones procesaban las enzimas y subproductos necesarios para que su masa muscular se regenerase después de un ejercicio intenso. Olga podía emplearse a fondo en el deporte porque se recuperaba de manera rápida y eficaz.
La veterana atleta canadiense fue rebajando el ritmo de sus entrenamientos en los últimos años, pero sus resultados siguieron siendo espectaculares. Al margen de los estudios a los que fue sometida, los investigadores obtuvieron una conclusión evidente: su tenacidad y competitividad fueron claves en su exitosa carrera deportiva.

Very pregnant Alysia Montano runs at U.S. Championships

nbcsports

Nick Zaccardi

Getty Images

Olympian Alysia Montano entered the 800m at the U.S. Championships about six weeks before her due date on Thursday.

Montano, a five-time U.S. outdoor champion, clocked 2 minutes, 32.13 seconds to finish last in her eight-woman preliminary heat, 24.38 seconds behind her closest competitor. Here’s video of her race.

“I’ve been running through my entire pregnancy, and I felt really, really good during the whole process,” Montano told reporters after her race in Sacramento, Calif. “I definitely was like, OK, I think I can run a pretty decent time. I didn’t have a time on it [that I wanted to run]. I just knew I didn’t want to get lapped, be the first person to ever get lapped in an 800m. More than anything, I wanted to be here, and I’m feeling that fire and that desire to be on the track and to race. What a better avenue than to do it at USA Nationals.”

Montano, the four-time reigning U.S. champion, had a previous qualifying time that allowed her to enter the competition. She said she consulted her doctor and midwife, who encouraged her to race 34 weeks into her pregnancy.

“That took away any fear of what the outside world might think about a woman running in pregnancy or exercise in general,” said Montano, wearing a customary flower in her hair. “What I found out mostly was that exercising and maintaining during pregnancy is actually much better for the mom and the baby.”

She received a standing ovation at Sacramento State’s Hornet Stadium.

“I just felt so supported,” she said. “I didn’t want to be judged or have any ill things said about me. I just wanted to kind of do what my heart and my desire wanted to do.”

Montano said she knew she wouldn’t advance out of the first round. Rather, she viewed her participation as a celebration.

“We see so many people in different avenues in their life start their family, and it looks so different than it does for a professional athlete, especially for a professional athlete woman,” said Montano, whose due date is Aug. 13. “You’ve seen [four-time Olympic middle distance runner] Bernard Lagat have two kids, and we don’t see the other side of it. This is what it looks like to be a professional athlete as a woman.”

Montano, 28, finished fifth in the Olympic 800m and fourth at the 2011 and 2013 World Championships. No American woman has won an Olympic 800m medal since Kim Gallagher‘s bronze in 1988.

89-year-old D-Day veteran parachutes into Normandy again

ITN

 

Man jumps onto railway track to save woman from oncoming train

ITN

 

WATCH: Out-of-control speedboat captured by RNLI crew

ITN

Dramatic Video: Injured climber films his own escape from a Himalayan crevasse

ITN

China: Miner Found Alive after 17 Years Underground

Mary Greeley

Blind American attempts Cuba-to-US kayak crossing

GlobalPost

A 56-year-old blind American set off in a kayak Friday in an attempt to cross the treacherous Florida Straits that separate Cuba and the United States.

Peter Crowley left Havana at 12:35 pm (1635 GMT) in his red boat, accompanied by his son who is guiding him from a separate blue kayak.

As he forges the 90-mile (150-kilometer) stretch of shark-infested waters in a push to reach Key West, Florida within 24 hours, a catamaran sailboat will also be following along.

"It means so much to me," said the athlete, a married father of three, who since birth has suffered from optic atrophy -- a malformation that prevents the optic nerve from functioning properly.

Crowley, who has only seven percent of his vision, is also hard of hearing in both ears. He was forced to remove his hearing aids, which are adversely affected by salty air, for the crossing attempt.

An accomplished athlete, Crowley has already completed several major kayaking feats, paddling more than 125 miles on the Hudson River in 1999 and becoming the first blind man to cross the English Channel in 2003.

Told as a child there were many things he should not try, Crowley said he decided to focus on what he could do, rather than his limitations.

Miguel Angel Diaz Escrich, commodore of the Hemingway International Yacht Club from which Crowley set off, said it was the first attempt to cross the strait by kayak.

Before embarking on the journey, which Crowley said was meant to demonstrate overcoming obstacles and to bring together the estranged United States and Cuba, he donated several devices for the visually impaired to Cuban students.

Completing the cross-ocean journey from Cuba to Florida, whether by swimming or other means, has become increasingly popular with athletes, mainly Americans, in recent years.

In September Diana Nyad swam into the history books, completing a marathon three-day crossing from Cuba to Florida to become the first person to do so without a protective shark cage.

Cubano que llega a EEUU en tabla de vela: "Loco esta el que se queda en Cuba"

AmericaTeVeCanal41