Ricardinho (Barazil), Paralympic Football Games 2019 ©Getty
Para Guard
Out of 146 countries in the Paralympics 51% of athletes come from only 9 countries. The reason is that high income countries are more likely to participate than medium or low income countries. Expensive equipment greatly affects participation, especially participation in the official Paralympics games.
During Paralympics practice and games, especially for new comers and the games where the players are blindfolded, players sustain a lot of tackles towards their arms and many fall to the ground during the game. The aim for the hand and leg guard protection was against hits sustained during games while being economical enough to manufacture and distributed to local teams and increase motivation to participate in the games.
Para-Guard is an arm and leg guard intended for disabled players world-wide for practicing purposes and break their fear of the sport; in which those players get tackled or fall more often than in normal olympic sports, both in practice and in the games.
The design for mass production and manufacturing is easy to implement and economical to use in even the smallest sports clubs, with a universal fit to all players.
The main material used is Spacer Fabric that is flexible and allows easy movement while maintaining breathability, alongside high-visibility textile and soft innards textile. Includes 2 runner Velcro to the main piece to hold and tighten as the player requires.
In collaboration with Sun Tekstil and İzmir University of Economics (IUE)
