Wednesday, September 05, 2012

The London 2012 Paralympics - Meet the Superhumans

Following our wonderful experience at the London 2012 Olympics Beach Volleyball and hearing about people's trips to the Olympic Park, we were lucky enough to secure tickets to the Paralympics. The tagline for television coverage here in the UK was 'Meet the Superhumans' and boy were they right! It was truly amazing to watch these people compete with the various disabilities they have, and to do it as well or better than many able-bodied athletes.

We had two tickets to an evening session of Athletics at the Olympic Stadium, but with those we were able to access the Olympic Park as early in the day as we wanted. Taking advantage of a lovely sunny day, we left work early in the afternoon and spent several hours exploring the Park.

They built the Park along the banks of the River Lea and several old disused canals, so water is a central feature of the Park. There were grassy banks, flower gardens and lots of art installations along the riverside walkways. One of the installations was set under a bridge and features words formed of water cascading down. It was slightly difficult to see the actual letters in the droplets of water, but it was a cool bit of technology. Other places included a butterfly garden and the main spectator area called Park Live.



Park Live featured two enormous screens set-up in the river and facing out towards seating areas and grassy slopes, thereby allowing people to sit outside and watch some of the events. It was a great atmosphere and we heard from others that when the Brits were winning lots of medals the atmosphere was electric. When we were there it was Men's Quad Doubles Tennis featuring a British pair, but they ultimately lost to the two-time defending champions, so unfortunately the atmosphere was more muted. Still it was amazing to watch these incredible athletes - including one guy who served the ball by kicking it up into the air!

After experiencing the world's largest McDonald's, official Olympic sponsors (yes that is irony for you), we entered the 80,000 seat Olympic Stadium. The stadium is surprisingly small feeling and it was easy to watch the various events regardless of which side of the field/track it was happening.


The Paralympics features athletes with a variety of disabilities, and therefore there is a rather extensive classification system for each sport. In Track and Field there are five general classifications and then within each of those 3 - 8 further distinctions. The general classifications are for visual impairment, mental disability, cerebral palsy, amputees and wheel chair based athletes.


We were lucky enough to see quite a few track finals as well as several field competitions, including the Men's Long Jump for those with cerebral palsy and the Women's Sitting Javelin. On the track we saw the heats of the Men's Amputee 100m, which included Oscar Pistorius from South Africa - who is the Usain Bolt of the Paralympics, as well as a young British guy who ultimately would win gold the next night. Pistorius is amazing, and his best event is the 400m which he went on to win in London by more than 3.5 seconds! In fact, he is so fast, he competed in the Olympics three weeks earlier, making the semi-finals.


It was uplifting to watch the joie de vivre of the three visually impaired Brazilian women 100m sprinters, and their male guides, who took a 1-2-3 finish and quite literally danced up to the medals podium!



Anyone who thinks the competition isn't real should spend an evening watching these true athletes battle it out and see the emotions - both good and bad - that come after the results.


These were the most successful Paralympics yet, with close to 3 million tickets sold and UK viewing figures peaking at 8million viewers or roughly 1 in 7 Brits. The British Paralympians rightfully stood shoulder to shoulder with the British Olympic heroes during the athletes' victory parade in London and hopefully their exploits went some way in showing people what is possible in the face of adversity. Meeting the Superhumans indeed!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this great experience. Loved the photos too!
Love, Mom and Dad