)
to move page by page through, one image at a time. Don't hit the
BAR arrow (
)
because that jumps you to the last picture instantly. Summary Index Page For The Athens 2004 (Paralympic) Trip Photographs
Each of these Links will take you to a page of thumbnails where you can scroll through a lot of pictures of a lot of varying quality. Many are lifted from a digital video tape and the focus is a little off at times. Lindsey also has "optimized" some of them, so you might see some duplicates where one looks much better, with say, a stranger walking through the background completely erased and other such magic.
To see a larger copy of any thumbnail image just left-click on it once.
Then you can either click once on the big image to return to the thumbnail page,
or use the little arrow on the right side of the screen ()
to move page by page through, one image at a time. Don't hit the
BAR arrow ( )
because that jumps you to the last picture instantly.
| Athens General Pictures |  |
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For a newsletter writeup about the competition, use this link to access it.
After years of training, the date finally arrived for Lindsey to compete in Athens, Greece in the 2004 Paralympics.
Lindsey flew out to Dulles in Washington on the 9th of September, several weeks after the Olympics closed. There she went through a processing center before leaving on a special charter flight direct to Athens with the rest of the US contingent. One day after taking off they landed in Athens where the 400 or so US athletes joined up with around 3400 from other countries in the Olympic Village. Originally designed for more than twice the number, the street were strangely, eerily empty at times.
Gina, Ron, and Ron's parents Bea and Alan flew out of Texas on the 15th, arriving in Athens on the 16th of September. Plenty of sightseeing ensued and they had a great time during the Paralympics, watching fencing, basketball, tennis, rugby all conducted from wheelchairs, track and field conducted from specially designed chairs (high-tech like bicycles are in the Olympics). Runners with double leg amputations, using high-tech steel and composite legs that allowed a runner to run sub 11 second 100 meter dashes!
Lindsey shot her qualifying round on the 21st, registering a score of 603 by shooting 72 arrows at a target 70 meters away. She bettered the world record by 13 points and blew the previous paralympic record away, improving on it by 34 points! A Chinese archer shot the same score but had less perfect arrows (Lindsey's were closer to the very center dot of the target) so Lindsey ended up ranked number 1 for the competition. She started out in the head-to-head competition 18-arrow match by beating the archer from Belarus 145 to 113, setting yet another paralympic record in the process. The nearest score to her by any other archer at this point was by the Chinese archer, 9 points less.
In her next match she faced an archer from Thailand who was just a little more "on" than Lindsey. Lindsey had 3 weak shots, two 5s and a 6, and finished 7 points behind the Thai, 91 to 98. That ended her Paralympic competition because in archery there are no second chances, no second serves. The Thai went on to shoot a 75 and a 77 finishing 4th, so her 98 was a very surprising and good performance. Lindsey ended up in 6th position.
A day after the closing ceremony, we boarded a 51 foot sailing yacht for 6 days of sailing the Agaean Sea, going from island to island in the Cyclades ([pronounced kik Kluh dees by our greek captain/guide/translator). We had a great time and discovered a gem of an island, Delos. See those pictures, for sure.
When we left the boat on the 5th of October Gina, Lindsey, and Ron headed straight to the airport for a 3 hour flight to Heathrow where we took a 130 dollar taxi ride to Marble Arch in London. Nana and Grandad stayed on the boat one more night, in order to take a morning flight to San Antonio ,via DFW.
Did we mention that London is EXPENSIVE? Stayed at the Marriott, as in Greece, using frequent flier-type points, and did some great touristy bits - The Big Eye, British Museum, The Globe, Thames River boat excursion, ate fish and chips, rode the metro, and perhaps best of all, took in Portobello Road on a Saturday morning - as in the street market featured in the movie, Nottinghill. Traveling with a wheelchair, a bowcase, and 5 suitcases, we had to take another taxi back to the airport and then back to USA on separate flights, all arriving safe and sound in Austin on the 9th of October. End of trip. always a good feeling to get home.
Lindsey liked the experience enough to want to do it again in 4 years - this time in Bejing in 2008. Before then, we hope to find some more women to teach archery to, in order to be able to field a women's team this time.
Ron