Otto Bock has been promoting sports for people with disabilities for more than three decades. The commitment to the Paralympics began in 1988 when five prosthetists of the subsidiary Otto Bock Australia offered their services in an improvised pavilion at the summer games in Seoul. As it turns out, Otto Bock has more to offer for professional athletes with disabilities than just product development. The project was quickly expanded at the 1992 Paralympics in Barcelona, and a mobile workshop was supplied from Germany. Otto Bock has been part of all the summer and winter games ever since; at the 2010 Paralympics in Vancouver, the company presented its successful exhibition at the Snow Dome in cooperation with the IPC.
Before and during the most recent summer games, the technicians often had more than 2,000 work orders. Some athletes would not have been able to compete at all if their extremely stressed devices had not been repaired directly at the competition venue. Not only Paralympics competitors from developing countries where technical support is still in its infancy, but especially they, took advantage of workshop services even in the days before the opening ceremonies to have their prostheses, orthoses and wheelchairs needed for competitions checked and repaired as required. In those days, the workshop becomes a multicultural meeting place. This is why the teams of technicians are assembled to cover all major languages and cultures. Here Otto Bock has access to its subsidiaries in 43 countries around the world as well as the specialists of its customers. Technicians enjoy a variety of international networking opportunities at the Paralympics, sharing alternative orthopaedics technology solutions that can prove useful later on in their day-to-day business back home.
Support for all
The commitment to the Paralympics has become part of the Otto Bock company philosophy. "We value our obligation to offer our expertise, our global organisation and our experience with orthopaedics technology of the highest quality for the benefit of worldwide sports for people with disabilities," says Professor Hans Georg Näder, President and CEO of Otto Bock. "Our partnership with the IPC is the foundation for the continuity of our support for athletes all over the world."
Visit the official website of the International Paralympic Committee here: www.paralympic.org
