Paralympic Games Thread

[afleitch]

The Opening Ceremony is tomorrow

'oe also revealed details of the Paralympics opening ceremony, after the first full dress rehearsal on Sunday night. The rehearsal was brought forward by 24 hours due to fears about heavy rain. Organisers hope the three-hour ceremony will not be affected by adverse weather.

The ceremony, directed by Jenny Sealey and Bradley Hemmings, will feature more than 3,000 volunteers including 50 disabled performers who have been learning circus skills from scratch. The athletes will come in earlier than during the Olympics opening ceremony, sitting on the track to form part of the audience.

Coe said the show, titled Enlightenment, was more thoughtful than the action-packed opening hour of Danny Boyle's rapturously received Isles of Wonder extravaganza. "I really like it. It focuses on that extraordinary period in European history and the great intellectual revolution that took place between 1550 and 1720. Everything from Newton making sense of gravity and motion to Napier with logarithms and Harvey with blood circulation.

"It's really about ceilings, about human understanding, about limitations and the importance of knowledge. Within that period some quite profound things were being said about the rights of man. You can probably gather what it's trying to say."

The same Thomas Heatherwick-designed cauldron used during the Olympics will be used for the Paralympics, but only 166 of its 205 "petals" will be inscribed, reflecting the smaller number of competing countries.'

Should be worth a watch

[afleitch]

Enjoying this so far.

First Stephen Hawking and now Ian McKellen

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Who else is looking forward to watching the greatest of sports? I refer, of course, to Wheelchair Rugby.

[afleitch]

Who else is looking forward to watching the greatest of sports? I refer, of course, to Wheelchair Rugby.

I demand at least a broken nose in this event.

[Platypus]

Australia vs New Zealand for Gold. Don't particularly care who wins. Canada for Bronze. US dead last.

Coincidentally, UK have over 150 hours of free to air coverage, from what I've read.Brazil and Australia 120 hours. USA, zero.

Currently watching the opening ceremony (I recorded it this morning), it's a bit...different. Currently up to Saudi Arabia.

One thing that is absolutely clear is that the ABC are waaaaay better than Nine in covering the ceremony, and that whilst I won't get the live coverage of every medal and pretty much everything else as I did for the Olympics, it should be perfectly sufficient.

One of my mates was a Paralympian in Beijing (3 gold, a bronze and either 4 or 5 silvers), but he's retired until after uni, but I was able to share a few beers with him, a couple of our mates, and four of his mates one arvo in Canberra, including Matthew Cowdrey, so got a bit of a personal connection to cheer on

[afleitch]

The Parade of Athletes took a while. The show after all the teams entered was exceptionally good and at times preferable to the Olympic opening ceremony.

[Platypus]

Because of the ridiculous overrun, my recording has just conked out after the flying bit with the legless guy. Was really looking forward to it, bit pissed off really, heard good things.

[Dumbo]

It would be better when the Paralympics take place some weeks before the Olympic games.

[Platypus]

Australia's second on the medal table, which is pleasant. Behind the Chinese, semi-obviously.

Brits will overtake us, but third overall might be possible, if unlikely.

[Silent Hunter]

I went to the first athletic session at the Olympic Park today.

[Tender Branson]

Austria already has 4 medals at the Paralympics ...

Take that you loser athletes from the regular Olympics !

"Olympics-Red-faced Austrians bemoan medal drought"

[Andrea]

Pistorius didn't take his defeat in the 200m race well!

Looking at the medal table (previous editions too), I wonder why US is (relatively speaking) not impressive in Paralympics compared to Olympics and, on the other hand, why Ukraine is so good.

[bore]

Pistorius didn't take his defeat in the 200m race well!

Looking at the medal table (previous editions too), I wonder why US is (relatively speaking) not impressive in Paralympics compared to Olympics and, on the other hand, why Ukraine is so good.

I think a lot of the US's underperformance can be chalked up to lack of awareness (for example NBC is showing 0 hours of live coverage) and therefore lack of funding.

[Andrea]

Pistorius didn't take his defeat in the 200m race well!

Looking at the medal table (previous editions too), I wonder why US is (relatively speaking) not impressive in Paralympics compared to Olympics and, on the other hand, why Ukraine is so good.

I think a lot of the US's underperformance can be chalked up to lack of awareness (for example NBC is showing 0 hours of live coverage) and therefore lack of funding.

Here in Italy there's a good TV coverage (state TV is covering them on one of their all sport channels and SKY have 5 dedicated channels) but few are watching (less than 1% market share for state channel. I don't know on SKY, I guess the average viewership is lowish but some watch at least one part of the all day coverage). However, the general media is not particularly interested.
I suppose our athletes are, at least partially, funded by the state (even the majority of our olympics athletes are state employees).

I guess China has some kind of state run training programme. They are everywhire, in every race and with young athletes (even in the sports where there are still 40+ competiting).

[Platypus]

Jacqueline Freney is on 6 golds from 6 events, with two left...near certain gold in the 400m and even chance in the medley relay.

We've slipped behind Ukraine on the medal tally, still more total medals though. Top 5 was the aim, and it looks like 4-5-6 will be close between the US, Ukraine, and Australia.

China absolutely dominant.