Robert Riener, for Sensory-Motor Systems and founder of the Cybathlon, in the Swiss Arena in Kloten. (Photograph: ETH Zurich/Alessandro Della Bella)
The first ever Cybathlon took place a week ago in the sold-out Swiss Arena in Kloten. Founder Robert Riener takes stock. ETH News: A week has passed since the Cybathlon . How do you feel when you look back on it? Robert Riener: Happy and relieved. Happy because of all the positive results and feedback we received, even from people who were initially critical of the Cybathlon. And relieved that everything worked out so well from a logistical and technical perspective. There was a moment on Friday evening, the night before the Cybathlon, when I was the last to leave the Arena at half past midnight and switched off the lights. It was so quiet that I could hear my own heartbeat and suddenly I was very aware of the responsibility I bore. I realised just how much could go wrong, but also what a great opportunity lay ahead of us. The end result was incredible - the atmosphere in the stadium was electric. Did that surprise you? The atmosphere and the noise level in particular exceeded all my expectations. Seeing the audience rooting for every single team and cheering them on at the top of their voices, and how the pilots stepped or drove over the finish line with tears in their eyes - that was deeply moving. Is there anything that particularly surprised you? Something that didn't really surprise me, but I feel is worth highlighting nonetheless, is that in some of the Cybathlon races the winners or top finishers were using simple, non-motorised prostheses rather than high-tech models. That isn't to say that all the research was a waste of time, but rather that there remains a wealth of untapped potential in mechanical assistive devices. What would you do differently in future Cybathlons?
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