The US National Amputee Soccer Team was in action this weekend against the national team from Haiti.  The Haitian team includes many survivors of the 2010 earthquake that devastated their country. Regrettably, despite having a superior team in terms of speed and skill, the Haitians resorted to deliberately fouling Nicolai to prevent him from scoring. The sequence of pictures here shows what happened after Nicolai beat one of their players (who lost his balance as Nico dribbled around him). While falling to the ground he swung his crutch at Nicolai, fracturing the extremely strong carbon fiber tube of his crutch. I shudder to think what would have happened if he had hit Nico’s leg instead.

This was by no means the only such example of foul play.  It became pretty clear by the second game that fouling Nico was part of their strategy to neutralize him.  Unfortunately it was fairly effective.