Paralympics Paris 2024

[Sulusu]

Anyone else watching today on day one?

I enjoyed the opening ceremony last night.

Last day. I'm not ready for it all to be over :(

It's been a great games though. Paris has done a good job at both Olympics and Paralympics.

ukraine have had more paralympians than ever before, due to the war in ukraine, which is a sobering statistic.

however i also am so sad it is almost over. it is such a wonderful event and the para competitors are inspiring

Where do you read it's because of the war? Ukraine have always had a strong paralympic team and pretty much finish top 10 of the medal table.

Compared to their Olympic team it's always outperformed them.

But yes shame it's over.

Ds said to me this morning that it signifies his next 4 years 😂

Ukraine were third in the medal table at Rio, so have actually dropped down.
I'm back from Paris after an incredible 2 weeks of volunteering at La Defense, and going to a good number of sessions for other sports (none free apart from one athletics ticket)

Watching the basketball final now, go Netherlands!

(I am Dutch)

@itsgettingweird
on radio world service, the largest amount of Paralympians this year,
i was surprised as well because i was wondering how quickly they would train to be paralympians

Ukrainian competitors would also have had a particularly difficult time training.

Such an amazing 11 days of elite sport - sad it's over.

A lot are training in other countries.

Ukraine have a brilliant swimming programme. Always have had a brilliant para programme and it has been growing for years. I'm not sure it's because of being injured in the war (if that's what you meant as that's how I read it). Many of the current team competed at Tokyo in 2021.

But because para athletes couldn't be called up they would have been less affected than AB competitors.

Well this is what the man said, more competitors than ever, due to the war , which is sobering

💪

It is sobering.

My guess to answer the question about how they've rained so quickly is they were athletes beforehand who have been injured so already masters of their craft in some way.

Faye Roger's the British para swimmer was already a swimmer (and a bloody good one) before she had her car accident 3 years ago. So she's had to come back and learn a different way of swimming using her arms but her body has had the aerobic training etc from a young age rather than Starting from scratch.

Some sports it probably matters less any aerobic training etc - shooting maybe?

I am enjoying the closing ceremony.

@itsgettingweird My guess to answer the question about how they've rained so quickly is they were athletes beforehand who have been injured so already masters of their craft in some way.

good point

The guardian had an article about China which was interesting, in that they 'scoop up' disabled kids from rural areas and hothouse them from a young age, whereas a lot of ours, USA etc tend to be war veterans, later injuries etc so haven't trained in the same way for as long. They prioritise medals, but have much less infrastructure in place for your average disabled citizen re transport/work etc. It may or may not be true, but was thought provoking. Beijing had a medal legacy but not a societal one was their point.

I believe that about china

Just finished the last last leg, have loved the games - such an incredible group of people,
always makes me feel so emotional.
Didnt watch much of the Olympics, we were on holiday for most of it and caught up with snippets here and there but have been home for the Paralympic’s and we’ve all loved it.

I think i actually enjoyed it more than the Olympics. And was surprised by how many athletes from different countries I remembered from last time. Johnny Peacock, Sarah Storey et al made a good point re putting events in the diamond league. But I was remembering swimmers like Alice Tai, Maisie Summers Newton, the judokas etc there could be more coverage in the gap between the games, I'd watch.

And from other countries DP was getting a full 'oh dear, Jessica Long is in this race', or Oksana Masters, or Tatiana McFadden, or Marcel Hug. They all deserve more coverage.

There's lots about the Chinese athletes that will surprise you.

Some who've escaped there are very open and honest about their regime.

But yes that's the basis of it and there is worse of what my ds has been told is true.

They seem to have a lot of athletes born without limbs in their industrial areas and they are sent to national training camps and don't get educated from the age of 10yo.