Paralympians Dan Fitzgibbon, Liesel Tesch battling planes, dead dogs and pollution in gold medal hunt

DEAD dogs in footy shirts. Submerged fridges. Railway sleepers. Condoms. Super bugs. Now there’s an extra hurled to overcome in Rio next year.

Liesl Tesch and Dan Fitzgibbon on their way to winning gold at the 2012 Paralympic Games.

UPDATED: DEAD dogs in footy shirts. Submerged fridges. Railway sleepers. Condoms. Super bugs.

The worlds best sailors know the polluted racecourse at Rio will come with some of the biggest obstacle and health challenges they have had to overcome at regatta but for Paralympians things will be even worse than for their Olympic comrades

When defending Paralympic gold medallist Liesl Tesch looks skywards in Rio next year it won’t be because she’s looking for divine assistance.

Instead she will be casing the sky to ensure she and quadriplegic skipper Dan Fitzgibbon are not about to be sent flying by a downdraft from a passing plane.

While Rio de Janeiro’s domestic airport will close for four-and-a-half hours a day during the 10-day Olympic sailing competition on Guanabara Bay, Fitzgibbon and partial paraplegic crewmate Tesch said it will be reopened for the Paralympic competition.

Paralympic sailors Liesl Tesch and Dan Fitzgibbon during training on Sydney Harbour.

“The airport is at one end of one of the race tracks they will use at the Paralympics,’’ said Tesch from Melbourne where she and new father Fitzgibbons are currently in the lead as they bid to defend their world crown in the SKUD 18 keelboat class.

“It’s being shut for the Olympics for the helicopters being used for the TV but reopened for the Paralympics.’’

Fitzgibbon steers the boat from a custom made, carbon fibre, pilot-style seat he is strapped into. A “sip and puff” system cants the seat from side to side as the boat tacks so he remains vertical at all times. Tesch, a former captain of the Australian wheelchair basketball team, has more movement and works the front of the boat and sails.

Pollution floats in Guanabara Bay, site of sailing events for the Rio Olympics and Paralympics.

Fitzgibbon and Tesch, who have seen photos of a dead dog in a football jersey floating in the bay, have also witnessed first hand the effect the planes jet stream can have on conditions.

“They can create a channel of breeze straight down the course,’’ said Fitzgibbon. “On the edge (of the channel) it is tricky, in the middle it is strong. I saw a boat knocked over going upwind.’’

Paralympic sailors Dan Fitzgibbons and Liesl Tesch training on Sydney Harbour.

Fitzgibbon said locals are already lobbying to have the airport open during the Olympics and is prepared to simply adjust to what will already be difficult conditions given their sailing courses are close to the main sewerage outlet into the bay, tricky tides and assorted debris including plastic bags and pieces of parachutes which hook around their centreboard and condoms which get caught on their ropes..

“I just look at it as just another obstacle sailing throws at you. Everyone has to deal with it’’ Tesch said. “We’ve got terrible tides, rubbish and now jet streams.

“I reckon to win under those circumstances will be a greater victory than anything else. ‘’

Originally published as Paralympians Dan Fitzgibbon, Liesel Tesch battling planes, dead dogs and pollution in gold medal hunt