ROBERT SIEGEL, Host:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Robert Siegel.
MELISSA BLOCK, Host:
And Stephen, today you went to wheelchair rugby. Tell me about that.
STEPHEN WADE: I think it's my favorite sport already, four people on a court in wheelchairs, bashing into each other, very fast, very high-scoring, you know, lots of testosterone. It's surprising that - you know, men are men, so it doesn't make a difference what - they're quadriplegics, but there's plenty of testosterone. It's like, you know, like stock car racing out there.
BLOCK: Testosterone and lots of tattoos, I bet, on that U.S. team.
WADE: Lots of tattoos, lots of testosterone, and a little attitude too.
BLOCK: We know it as murderball from the movie about the U.S. team, and today it was the U.S. against China, new to the sport, China.
WADE: Yeah, the Chinese coach said they've only been at it for a year, and they were a little bit outflanked by the Americans. The Americans used some clever American football tactics: blocking, smashing. They could use a little more practice time, the Chinese. The Americans overwhelmed them, basically.
BLOCK: Final score?
WADE: 65-30.
BLOCK: Stephen, this is, I gather, the first Paralympics that you've covered, and the range of athletes, the range of disabilities with which they're competing, is quite striking, anything from athletes who are blind to double amputees to athletes with cerebral palsy.
WADE: There is a special atmosphere, although it's dwarfed by the Olympics. The Olympics is simply so much bigger, and there's so much more attention to it, so somehow these athletes, even though they're quite exceptional, can be lost in this gigantic city of Beijing in the wake of the Olympics.
BLOCK: Tell us about some of the top athletes who have gotten a lot of attention in these games.
WADE: The other big athlete is Erin Popovich, who's an American swimmer, who has won four gold medals already. This weekend she's likely to win two more. I think she won seven in Greece and six in Sydney. So she's approaching 16 or 17 medals.
BLOCK: Take that, Michael Phelps.
WADE: Yeah, she is the Michael Phelps, I think, of this U.S. swim team.
BLOCK: I was interested to read about one controversy that's come up, and that has to do with an Irish soccer player, Derek Malone, who was to compete on the seven-on-the-side soccer team. All the players have cerebral palsy, and it was determined that he was not disabled enough to be on the team.
WADE: This is a strange one. He told us yesterday that he basically had trained through some of his palsy so that he'd - by being very, very fit he'd overcome a lot of the handicaps, but people in seven-on-the- side decided that he was too fit, he was too agile, so he's been ruled out.
BLOCK: And the classification system for all of these sports is very complicated. They're tested and judged in terms of their disability, and they said ultimately you can't play. They sent him home.
WADE: So just like the Olympics. I think we had six positive tests in the Olympics, and we had dozens before. In this event we've had four in pre- competition. So the cheats even work in Paralympic sports.
BLOCK: Sure. What would the games be without a doping scandal?
WADE: What would they be?
BLOCK: Well, Stephen Wade of the Associated Press, talking with us from Beijing about the Paralympic Games. Thanks so much.
WADE: You're welcome, Melissa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.