Starting today
Don’t worry, I’m not back yet. However, with the opening ceremony today, I think it’s appropriate to cross-post one of my own blog entries from before I left the land of the internet.
So today, we’ve all seen Boris collecting the flag and the end of the 29th Summer Olympiad. There’s big a huge party on the Mall, and all thoughts have been turning towards the London Games in 4 years time. But not mine. Not yet at any rate.
Since I first saw the Summer Paralympic Games at Atlanta in 1996, I’ve always preferred them to Olympics ‘proper’. Olympic athletes are obviously proud of their achievements - and winning an Olympic gold is something all will be proud of. Even the tennis players.
But, for a paralympian, finishing the race is a tremendous achievement for most. It’s emotive stuff, often tear jerking, and the skill of the athletes is magnified.
I really do enjoy it - which 4 years ago was to the chagrin of my then housemates, watching the Wheelchair Basketball bronze-medal playoff live at 8am one morning and waking the house up with my cheering.
We also do brilliantly well at the games as Team GB. Fourth it Atlanta (39 Golds, 122 medals) before jumping to 2nd in 2000 behind only Australia (41 Golds, 131 medals). In Athens, the Chinese investment in sport started to show its prowess, as they headed the medal table with 63 Golds - Team GB again in second with 35 golds. A similar performance should be achievable in a few weeks time.
Such success is perhaps not surprising. Whilst it was the Greek that created the modern olympics, it was the British that created the modern paralympics- in 1948 at Stoke Mandeville hospital. They joined with the Olympics, sharing venues a few weeks after the Oympics, in 1988. Since then, some British paralympians have become household names - notably Ade Adeptain (Wheelchair baskterball) and of course Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson (wheelchair athletics).
The BBC will be providing even more extensive coverage than previously, so we can follow the games fully. I’ll be watching.
~Asp
