‘Para Cycling’ Has Athletes Stuffing Their Faces Into Each Other’s Butts

The Paralympic Games recently concluded, a series that exposed the world to incredible athletes performing truly unbelievable feats of strength and talent.

One of the sports featured at these games was “para cycling,” which is, to put it simply, cycling that’s been adapted for those with disabilities. An adaptation made for blind people, for example, is to have a sighted person seated at the front of the bike as the pilot — and have the visually impaired person sit with their face planted firmly in the other person’s rear. That role is called being the “stoker.”

As athletes in this sport will tell you, such a relationship requires a lot of communication and trust — not only because it’s a physically taxing sport, but because at any given moment, your pilot could fill your face with beef stew.