Paralympics 2012

Yesterday was the end of the London 2012 Paralympics. I didn’t watch much of the closing ceremony. The beginning seemed like a silly remake of ‘Mad Max’ and I’m not generally a fan of Coldplay, I find them extremely boring sometimes. I have to admit though that the stuff that was happening around them with the dancers looked interesting when I took a glimpse while changing channels. Did you watch it? Did you like it?

I was fortunate enough to go and watch the actual games last week though. Last Monday to be precise, I met ‘JJ’ after work and we went to the Olympic Park. It was our choice to go to watch the Paralympics instead of the Olympics. We also wanted to go and check the main stadium and that is why we picked an Athletics event. We saw high jump, long jump, javelin, running and wheel chair running. It was simply amazing.

The Olympic Stadium was astonishing and the atmosphere breath-taking. The volunteers were all very polite and helpful, the crowd in a very good mood and the organisation spotless. The stadium was full and the people were cheering for the athletes of every origin and congratulate even the people for coming last, for their effort. The roar of the spectators was deafening though when a British athlete, Mickey Bushell, won a gold medal in 100 meters, T53 category (wheelchair). I even saw the Greek Alexandra Dimoglou win a bronze medal in 400 meters T13 category (wheelchair).

The very funny event of that night was when George Osborne was introduced to give a medal to an athlete. That’s a British Conservative Politian who is currently the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the minister for economic and financial matters! He was booed so badly!!! People were so disapproval which was a bit sad and funny at the same time.

In any case, the true heroes were the athletes themselves.  The determination, power of will, courage and discipline they show is astonishing. I saw people high jumping with only one leg, blind runners with amazing speed running with just guides to aid them and javelin throwers with kinetic problems. I was very happy to learn that the London Paralympics have been a huge success with sold out tickets throughout the venues. People with disabilities deserve of course the public’s respect and support and I hope the Paralympics help into that direction in the long run.