Tag: paris

John McFall, the Astronaut Flag Bearer at the Paris Paralympics, Is Ready to Fly

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At first we studied how my disabilities and prosthesis might affect my ability to meet the requirements in-flight. At a later stage we went into detail, to the point of figuring out, for example, whether I should compulsorily use my prosthesis in space, since legs are hardly used there.

In summary, I can say that although I would need the prosthesis at some stages, disabilities like mine fully meet the needs of space travel. I am very happy to say that we have not identified any hiccups capable of precluding a person with disabilities like mine from a long-duration space mission. This has an incredible positive outcome.

Why is it important that people with disabilities can also operate in space? And what specific disabilities are we talking about?

I’ll start with the second question. Fly! looked at a specific group of disabilities, those in the lower limbs. From the results I think we can extrapolate different variables in that group that are compatible with long-duration space missions. We need to progress step by step, starting with the basics, and I am sure that starting to study lower limb disabilities was a good choice. I hope we can soon focus on other disabilities, which allows me to answer the first part of the question: Why is it important?

The ESA recognizes that talented people can boast different histories and backgrounds—meaning gender, sex, ethnicity, physical abilities. Everywhere in the world there are those who could make valuable contributions to human space exploration. Of course, this involves becoming astronauts.

And the experience and knowledge of people with physical disabilities can bring new and valuable ideas, different ways of thinking, motivation, inspiration. For this to happen, everyone needs to have fair representation among the staff, with appropriate professional positions and roles. This is a goal, and the ESA is working to achieve it.

In September, the Polaris Dawn mission is expected to take off from Cape Canaveral, and will feature the first spacewalk by nonprofessional astronauts. What do you think?

They are inspiring and no less important in the landscape of human exploration of the cosmos, because every time these missions become a reality, they help enrich the knowledge we have as a community. Polaris Dawn is doing new science; it’s testing new technologies. That’s why I have great respect for private astronauts and their missions—they make a major contribution to the advancement of our space activities.

McFall and other ESA astronauts in a weightlessness simulation.

ESA/A. Conigli

When are you going into space?

I would love to travel beyond the atmosphere. I hope to have the opportunity, but what I hope most is that sooner or later someone with physical disabilities will be able to do it, fully integrated into the activities on the International Space Station.

About the timing, I hope that at the end of this decade it can happen. As for me, if I ever have the opportunity to fly in space, it will not be before 2027. But nothing is confirmed, and I am keeping my fingers crossed at the moment.

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August 29, 2024
The Olympics’ Hostile Architecture Is a Preview of What’s to Come

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On a graffiti-stained sidewalk in Paris, a strange sight appeared days before the Olympic opening ceremony in July: Around 40 giant cement Lego-like blocks in neat rows beneath the Pont de Stains, a bridge in the northern suburb of Aubervilliers that connects two Olympic sites, the Stade de France and the Parc des Nations.

This place used to be a homeless encampment, where around 100 people, many of them migrants, lived in tents. Then on July 17, the police arrived and instructed everyone to leave, as part of a cleanup operation in which authorities put homeless people, members of the Roma community, migrants, and sex workers on buses to other cities, such as Bordeaux or Toulouse.

Once the authorities emptied the area, according to activists, the immovable blocks of concrete were installed in place of the tents, ending any notion the former residents may one day be able to return.

Campaigners say these bricks are an example of hostile architecture, a term used to describe some of the most visible changes cities and companies make to deter homeless people loitering or sleeping on their properties. “This is not new, but it has been intensified in a very specific way during the Olympics,” says Antoine de Clerck, part of Le Revers de la Médaille, a group of activists raising awareness of how marginalized people are treated during the Olympic Games.

“We do not advocate for encampments and squats and shantytowns,” adds de Clerck. “But to eradicate them, you have to find alternative long-term solutions.”

Despite other examples of hostile architecture in Paris, including picnic tables installed where people used to sleep, it is the giant Lego-style blocks that have proved most controversial. “I haven’t seen anything quite like this,” says Jules Boykoff, a professor and former professional soccer player who studies the impact of the Olympics on marginalized communities. “Typically, hostile architecture is more subtle,” he says, “like a curved bus bench that makes it less comfortable for somebody to sleep.”

Anti-homeless spikes and rough surfaces installed in a luxury housing complex to deter homeless people from sleeping in the area around the Limehouse Basin marina in London, UKPhotograph: Julio Etchart/ullstein bild via Getty Images

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August 9, 2024
Judging Breaking At the Olympics Is an Art, Not a Science

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Back in 2017, when I was watching the breaking battles at the Silverback Open in the suburbs of Philadelphia, a B-boy drew up into a handstand. It’s a basic element, to be sure, but this dancer tweaked it by balancing on the back of his wrists, an innovation that excited the crowd surrounding the cypher.

As I settled back down, I remember thinking, how the hell do you score that, an unexpected flip of the wrist, or any of the other spontaneous displays of creativity? The matter felt pressing because of then-recent developments.

Just a year earlier, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had announced that breaking was being added to the roster for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games (YOG), an event often used as a testing ground for new Olympic disciplines, such as 3-on-3 basketball. If breaking did well in Buenos Aires, there was a good chance that it would make the roster for all-ages Olympic Games. And it did do well, which is why breaking makes its debut in Paris.

The IOC selected the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) to shepherd the dance along its Olympic trajectory, an interesting choice given that it had no prior relationship with breaking or the community that created it. The WDSF, best known for being in charge of global ballroom dance competition, had about two years to get breaking ready for its YOG debut. This meant they also had two years to develop and implement an IOC-approved judging system.

At most battles, especially the smaller ones, the judging is a low-tech affair. There’s an odd number of judges and after everyone is done with their rounds—how many usually depends on the stage of the battle—the judges vote for the person they think won, usually by pointing. Sometimes one of the judges will cross his arms in an X to signify that he feels that the two dancers have tied. This means that they have to do another round, burning through more energy (and perhaps some moves they might’ve been saving for a later bout) so that the undecided judge can pick a side.

These votes aren’t based on any hard and fast rules; in fact, traditionally, there’s been no rulebook at all. While there is a general consensus about some things, such as biting another B-boy’s moves (don’t do it) or touching your opponent (also don’t do it) or dancing on beat (definitely do that if you possibly can), the judges are usually evaluating the dancers according to the values of the breaking tradition—creativity, style, character, and musicality. It’s up to each individual judge, usually dancers or former dancers, how to weigh the different values in their decision.

This probably wasn’t going to cut it at the Olympics.

Fortunately for the WDSF, several years before the IOC’s foray into breaking, members of the community had already started building a judging system to be used at major events such as Battle of the Year. B-boy Niels “Storm” Robitsky, Kevin “Renegade” Gopie, and Dominik Fahr, founder of and8.dance, along with a handful of others, had spent years developing a unified, consistent approach to evaluating breaking, with Fahr developing the platform and technology to put it into action. After the YOG announcement, they partnered with the WDSF to fine tune their approach, which was used at the 2018 YOG. In 2022, Gopie, Robitsky, and Fahr stopped working with the WDSF. Since their departure, the WDSF developed what they’ve called the Olympic judging system, but they didn’t reinvent the wheel. The system that will be used in Paris is an alternate version of what Gopie, Robitsky, and Fahr had created.

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August 9, 2024
No, the Seine Cleanup Wasn’t a Failure

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Despite the creation of multiple stormwater reservoirs, like the Bassin d’Austerlitz, which collect stormwater and slowly release it after the bad weather has passed, if enough rain is concentrated into a small enough time, not everything that falls from the sky can be captured. In such a situation, runoff water has to be released into the river, driving up bacterial levels.

“[Weather] variability due to climate change is a major issue, and this will only make things more difficult,” says Dan Angelescu, CEO of water-monitoring start-up Fluidion at a July 31 press conference at the company’s office in Alfortville, just outside Paris. The company makes remote water-sampling devices that beam their readings back to a central base, and it has been working with Paris authorities since 2016 providing water analysis at the Bassin de la Villette reservoir, a separate swimming site in the north of Paris that is already open for public swimming.

“If new projects to collect waterway runoff are not carried out in the coming years, it is highly likely that the swimmability of the Seine and the opening of recreational and sports areas will depend on weather events, with swimming bans following rainy days,” says Loïs Mougin, a doctoral researcher in exercise and environmental physiology at the School of Sport, Exercise, and Health Science at Loughborough University.

Even without a rise in extreme weather, keeping the Seine clean enough to swim in in the face of normal weather events—such as regular summer rain—is a big challenge, says Jean-Marie Mouchel, professor of hydrology at the Sorbonne University. “There are also plenty of non-exceptional weather events that have an impact on the water quality. We need to make the system more efficient at improving water quality in the face of these.” Water-quality data from last summer backs up this point. The Seine was unswimmable roughly 30 percent of the time—but Paris wasn’t enduring extreme rainfall a third of the time.

Experts argue that how water-monitoring is done, and what information is shared with the public and when, also has to improve. “It is crucial that bacteriological data be published daily, along with information on the associated risks,” Mougin says. These include the potential for gastrointestinal issues and eye and skin infections.

“Monitoring is going to become critical,” Angelescu says. “Having technology that’s able to monitor the right risk, measure the actual risk coming from all the bacteria, and provide results fast is going to be extremely important.” Conventional monitoring methods, which were used to make decisions for the triathlon (and didn’t involve Fluidon), involve taking samples from the river and sending them to a lab—a process that is far slower than the real-time monitoring.

So separately, Fluidon has been trialing its technology at the triathlon site near the Alexandre III bridge throughout the Games, focusing on levels of the E. coli bacteria, to show how a quicker system that involves on-site processing might perform in the river. It has been publishing its results in near real time on an open data site, and says its technology provides a more accurate and up-to-date picture of water conditions.

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August 2, 2024