Paralympics to be scaled down

[Mummyme1987]

Just heard this on the news.

Bought them for London.
Donated to a fundraiser for my friends families to attend Rio.

Do you have a point?

Thought not.

Went to paralymipics opening in london fulltime and honestly think its better than olympics. Very sad! Never should. Be held in brazil. Not a safe country at the moment. Am seriously considering going to next one in japan as country always wanted to visit!

What a stupid thing to say yummy. I don't have to haul myself to the actual Paralympics to support it. I can't afford to go to Brazil just like millions of others. I was just talking to my DH last night about how I was looking forward to watching it.

What does "scaling" down mean? I do understand some travel grants may not be available, and "some staff" may be cut.

What does that mean? Less fireworks at the opening ceremony? Fewer qualifying heats? Completely remove tennis & basketball (or some other specific sport) from the schedule? I don't understand what "scaling down" means at all.

Dallas, you're in the clear, most in this thread are not.

But in any case, how on earth does attending the London paralympics help the Brazil paralympics? The whole point is that they have experienced worse ticket sales than London, hence the scaling down.

How utterly amazon would it be if London could step in and pull the PO off on such short notice.

YorkieDorkie, I'm going follow your lead and "support" the paralympics by watching it on TV and maybe bleating about it on here. That should sort the funding problem right out

It'd be nice if the paralympics received as much support as the olympics, but the harsh reality is it simply can't match the draw of the strongest, fastest and most skillful humans on the planet. Particularly as the fastest athletes have just competed in the same location a few weeks earlier.

If the paralympics were held in a different location, or in a different year, the organisational cost would double, but the revenue would not. Not really a practical solution either.

How utterly amazon would it be if London could step in and pull the PO off on such short notice.

But they couldn't; of course the couldn't. Most of the venues have been dismantled because they were temporary. The athletes village is now private housing. West Ham football club is in the Olympic stadium. All those Paralympic teams who are already in Rio/have tickets to go; do you really think the airlines are going to say "Bally forgets, let's just change your airline ticket to one to London at no extra cost?".

The whole point is that they have experienced worse ticket sales than London, hence the scaling down

No, that's not why.

There are two issues that have created Paralympics’ budget problem. The first and biggest is the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee did not deliver all the funding it promised to the Paralympic Games.

Yes, ticket sales are woeful, but that's not why they've run out of money.

The funds have been spent on all the problems at the Rio Olympics: repairs, security and the diving pool.

The Olympics were always going to be an issue in Rio, but no one realised it would be this bad.

Fulltimeyummy, you're saying no one can criticise the downscaling of the para olympics unless they are going to Rio to watch?

Right-o.

It isn't about the draw of the olympics though, there have been loads of empty seats at many events - if they had sold as many olympic tickets as they hoped then they wouldn't have needed to raid the money for the paralympics in doing things like fixing the diving pool water.

We can't all go to Rio, but I do think it helps to watch it on TV as the channel would need to pay to be allowed the broadcasting rights and they only pay if people watch.

One of the reasons that the London Paralympics was so successful was that many people couldn't get tickets for the Olympics and so bought Paralympic tickets instead. I went to a Paralympics event in the Stadium (the night when Team GB won lots of golds; can't remember what it was called) and the stadium was full and the atmosphere was electric. That has not happened in Brazil.

Even if it were possible for London to hold the games - and it is absolutely impossible, as someone said, the infrastructure has all been redeveloped for other use, I as a Londoner wouldn't be happy to fund any of it - we're still paying a levy on our council tax for the last games!

Hosting the Olympics in a country known for disorganisation, corruption and laziness was never a good plan.the Brazilian crowd have behaved in a disgusting way on several occasions and the DQ of team gbs men's relay so Brazil could qualify is a further example.

The Paralympics could never raise enough money to be a completely stand alone event.

friends DD is in this advert - love it

There's a hell of a lot of disabilism in this thread!
people aren't interested because the disabled athletes are all different? Not as fast/skilled as the able bodied ones?? They would get lost in the main Olympics because the "normal" olympians are more famous and shiny? Bless them, they're special, let them have their little treat, but don't let them near our real Olympics!
I'm able bodied and disgusted, frankly!
This kind of treatment of disabled people in any other setting would be illegal!

a8mint disorganised and corrupt yes but lazy? Brazilians are a lot of things but they are not lazy. DQ of team gbs men's relay so Brazil could qualify is a further example. They were disqualified by the judges because they messed up, not by the Brazilians so they could participate. Should they be allowed to continue because they are British? Silly flip-wearing scum should know their place, how dare they criticise the elite right?
Xenophobic crap I'm reading online, coming from people in my country is making vomit in my mouth and really ashamed.

I love that ad, giraffes. I'll be cheering on during the Paralympics as much as I have the Olympics. I hope lessons are learnt from the budget shortfalls this year for future years.

Well yummy by your logic there would be no point televising it at all because apparently we should all be there!

I'm assuming you're flying out to Brazil soon, yes?

people aren't interested because the disabled athletes are all different? Not as fast/skilled as the able bodied ones?? They would get lost in the main Olympics because the "normal" olympians are more famous and shiny? Bless them, they're special, let them have their little treat, but don't let them near our real Olympics!

Only the last sentence in that is disablist and nobody has said that. The first three sentences are true and the reason for that is not disablism but lack of exposure and unfamiliarity. People are not going to be as interested in watching an athlete they don't know or a sport they don't know much about. That would be true whether the competitor is disabled or able bodied. The Paralympics should be as high profile and well funded as the Olympics. But at the moment they are not and that isn't the general public's fault.

This kind of treatment of disabled people in any other setting would be illegal!

I don't think so. Maybe it should be but I actually think disabled sport has better treatment and exposure than examples of excellence and hard work in other areas. There's very very little recognition for disabled achievement in theatre or music, for example. Almost everyone you see on high profile stages is able bodied. Sport is doing a better job than the arts here (I say that as someone who works in the arts and is useless at sport). The standing of Paralympics may not be good enough yet but it is something to be emulated by other areas not to be ashamed of.