Argentina has just arrived, a rather large group enthusiastically jumping, waving and shouting as they enter and see the huge crowd awaiting them. Afghanistan enters with a small group. Tanzania arrives and now Latvia. The nations with basketball or rugby teams are easily spotted due to the number of wheelchairs.
206 athletes in 18 sports now arrive for the UK, some of whom are shown in the photo at left, eagerly preparing for the London Paralympics four years away. Many Union Jacks in the crowd. Navy blue pants and skirts, white jackets, the team is cheering and greeting the crowd. Kenya arrives, track and field athletes among them. Here's France, with a fourth all time record of gold medals and a 100 per cent participation in every Paralympics.
I need to save some room for the actual Opening Ceremony which, according to the UK announcers of ParalympicsportTV, is going to be spectacular. This is just such a thrilling sight for me , having played wheelchair sports in such small venues over the years, to see this kind of support and enthusiasm for all of these hard working and talented athletes. Playing wheelchair sports in the US is tough- not much financial backing, difficult to afford time to train while working, having to choose which weekend event to attend due to travel costs that aren't reimbursed. Parents of the younger athletes sacrifice to have their kids participate. Wheelie Catholic is shedding a few tears of gratitude knowing how the younger athletes must be getting such a thrill - and well deserved too- getting this royal treatment. A dream come true to see some parity in sport for athletes with disabilities.
US team arrives, slightly larger than the UK team - although the announcers say the UK team was slightly ahead with medals last time. See - this is why we need US coverage, folks. LOL And now they're saying our team looks like Wimbledon umpires. Okay that's it, we're going to beat the Brits for sure.
I'll be putting up a clip of the Opening Ceremonies soon as I can get one, but am ending the live blogging here. Hope you enjoyed it and sending best wishes to all the athletes participating in this event!
2 comments:
thanks for all the descriptions. Believe it or not, we don't actually *have* a television so I will be looking around on the web in the next couple of hours.
xoxo
WCD
WCD- Cool. I don't see a video up yet of the torch lighting at the end, but definitely will post one when I can.
It
was
awesome.
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