[Silver]

Good morning Ladies and Gents

Spike and I have just been watching some of the very limited coverage of the Paralympic Games to see Great Britain win their first Gold in swimming, (100m freestyle) woohooo!!!!!

Very well done to Eleanor Simmonds, who is only 13 and has dwarfism.

Is anyone else watching the games?

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by NAME_REMOVED

With great trepidation, and with a warning that this is about as politically and socially incorrect as you can possibly get. I know of at least two SRP members who are going to hell for laughing at this... and don't say I didn't warn you (you may find this offensive plus every other disclaimer in the universe). Stephen Lynch's Special

I have deleted the original post because it was in very poor taste.
Surrounding that video with disclaimers doesn't make it any less bad taste to post it here, so I deleted it and I don't want to see it on SRP again.

[Spike J]

Yay! We have won seven, yes, seven golds on the opening day We took nearly a week to win that many at the main Olympics.

There has been very little coverage of the games, which is a great shame. The athletes show determination, guts & dedication that make a lot of able bodied olympians seem like whiney prima donnas. The Olympic ideal of competition for its own sake is alive & well, thank the gods. I am quite simply awestruck by the performance of them all. Taking part, not winning, is the victory. Many could learn from that methinks

[Bruno]

The paralymics gets very little coverage here, so I don't follow it.
Even eurosport seems to have forgotten about it.

The Olympics are about records, winning, achievment and careers. This makes it ideal for sponsoring and media attention.
The Paralympics are (imo) more about sportsmanship, fun and overcoming your own limitations. This also ruins it for the advertisers who don't care much about things they don't understand, and media don't like to spend much time on people with disabilities because everybody needs to be healthy and able to identify with the goodlooking people in commercials.

[Spike J]

Team GB are second in the medal table! Yippee
Overall Medal Standings - The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games

[rsrick]

I have yet to see any coverage of the paralymics here in Canada (at least not at the times I am awake). I find it rather disappointing as the level of competition is equal to or better than the regular Olympics. Glad to hear that some of you are getting some coverage.

[fallout55]

Here's a place to watch free..

Paralympics - Schedule - Universal Sports

I used to compete each year in the National Veteran's Wheelchair games. Believe me, those guys in the paralympics are there to win. I had one friend who was banned for failing the steroid test.

[Silver]

Thank you Gents!

I was starting to think we were alone in our interest and the thread would die.

[fallout55]

Grr..I looked up that "song" that was posted(and then unposted, thank you Bruno) on this thread. I found an old pet peeve of mine and most all disabled athletes. The Paralympics/wheelchair Games are NOT the Special Olympics! The former two are for physically disabled atheletes, the latter for mentally disabled atheletes. I have had so many people over the years say, "Oh, so you're going to the Special Olympics." It just gets old after awhile..

[Ockham]

I know Switzerland has already won 5 medals (1 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze if I am not mistaken); sadly I am not able to watch the game... we do not have a TV...

The Paralympic have usually very little coverage (we only see footages or pictures when athletes - yes, they are also athletes! I couldn't do their performances even with all my limbs - from our country is winning some medals) usually because people working for the TV think that one cannot identify with "disabled" athletes, and as a consequence showing the Paralympic will not increase their number of viewers and thus they are not interested to buy and air them. Bull****! life is not populated only by Brandgelinas...