So the Beijing Paralympics are on and no one here seems to be saying anything!

Here in Italy the tv coverage of it sucks (haven't actually seen any on tv) but I'm trying to follow some of it online...
check-out >>> www.paralympicsport.tv
It's not always live, but atleast you get to see some!

Ok, it's not like being there and it's not like the UK BBC coverage, but it's fun to watch!

I'd love to see some of the athletics, like the track events, but they are on to early/late...
Wheelchair Basketball and the Swimming are the ones I'm enjoying the most for now!

I am trying to follow it also but the coverage sucks here in Canada also, I am a little upset that they are rerunning the womans 5000 huge spectacular crash but thats racing.

I saw yesterday an American won some racing gold... can't find the article now!! Coverage is not good here in the U.S. either, nothing compared to the games last month
But my reception is bad anyway so I ended up just watching those online as well!

I read something about that but haven't gotten to see it. Do you know what happened? Care to explain...

We've got live, all day satellite tv coverage of the games here in South Africa.
1.5hr highlights packages are also re-broadcast on two other terrestrial channels.

Enjoying it thusfar . . . loved Oscar Pistorius's 100m run this morning!
Wish there was more shooting!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_spor...ort/7605690.stm



ouch
It was a complete and utter shambles. I do hope there are to be some apologies!

I'm quite impressed with the 'Red Button' live coverage. Sucks if you haven't got that facility on your TV though.

Here in NZ, we're getting one hour of highlights late each night (up to 40hrs delayed). It's reasonable considering the level of public interest.

We have our own commentary team which on the good side means they usually have some personal contact with NZ athletes and often their families too which is all very friendly. But in their forced enthusiasm they often come across as condescending as though dealing with kindergarten kids.

And I'm gonna slug the next person who mentions the word 'courage'. It comes with bullshit.

The confusing and often unfair ability categories within the paralympics are a major turn-off. It's pointless for a commentator to use the category tags without explaining just what disabilities are involved - which often is too complicated for general consumption.

Only the simply understood sports like wheelchair racing and wheelchair basketball and individuals like Pistorius (what a finish!) are understood and stand a chance of mainstream acceptance.

That is a shame about the international coverage. Here in Australia our ABC 2 is broadcasting live all day with their sister ABC 1 presenting two 1.5 hour highlights packages

Looks like the paralympics wont be on U.S. television until October.

http://www.usolympicteam.com/news/article/6562


And one more link.. For those of you all around the world..
http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publi...ralympics.shtml

I get the impression since Tanni Grey-Thompson retired from competition the BBC have lost interest. Which is a shame because we have some fantastic and dedicated athletes.

For the 1st time we even have one handcyclist Rachel Morris.

Cheers

As part of the full, live, coverage we're getting the categories are explained prior to each event, which helps a great deal, even for someone like me who used to compete. For the average able-bod it's probably all very confusing, but then able-bod's are confused at the best of times! ;)

Thanks for the links, I was hoping to be able to see something on TV here, but the coverage is in the middle of the night.

Strange. It shouldn't be.

Beijing is about 9-10hrs ahead of Germany, so with most of the sport taking place in the afternoon and evening in Beijing it should be broadcasting live in Germany from approx. 8am to 5pm (right in the middle of the day).

I'm quite surprised to hear how many so called progressive, enlightened, 1st World, countries are not covering the Paralympics properly. I guess it's one thing to have wheelchair ramps, handicapped parking, and disabled toilets, but quite another to show all those poor cripples on television !! . . .

Doesn't say much for their true conviction.

As with most TV coverage in most 1st World countries it comes down to economics - not many countries have public service broadcasting like we're fortunate enough to have in the UK. Without that it comes down to expected viewing figures which determine advertising revenue. There's just not enough interest in the paralympics. While I was glued to the olympics I dip in and out of the paralympics without being able to generate any real enthusiasm except where people I know are competing. It's down to the very confusing class sysytems and ratings coupled with the fact that there's about 9 or 10 gold medals in most events which dilutes the impact somewhat.

We have to accept that paralympic sport is a minority sport and can only expect tv coverage to reflect that or we are proposing that it should be a special case because it features disabled people and then we're back to the 'aren't they brave and courageous' line that is rightly resisted.

Team GB were in 1st place on the Medal Table. but just been knocked off by China - USA in 3rd.

You can check full Medal Table at the link below...

http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRMP/ENG/INF...GL0000000.shtml

I'm watching it on satellite, not public service tv. Some bean counter has obviously done the maths and determined that it's worthwhile. Why would it be financially viable in Africa, and Oz, but not in the USA or UK? I would have thought it was the other way around?

There's not much interest in most non-mainstream sports. We have grid-iron, bowls, horse jumping, snooker, rally driving, Oz touring car racing, etc on our satellite channels. Very, very few people watch, but they're there nonetheless. Olympic sports are by nature not "popular". How many people watch men's javelin throwing during the year, or women's 25m pistol shooting?

I've been watching the Paralympics for almost a week now, and I've only ever seen 3 medals awarded for each event (one gold, one silver, and one bronze). If you're talking about the different classifications then you're maybe being a little harsh, I mean, even the Olympics has the same events in different forms (i.e. 400m, 400m hurdles, 400m relay, and then the same again for men/women).

Too many folk get themselves tied up with the classifications, etc . . . just enjoy it for the pleasure of enjoying it . . . in the same way I thoroughly enjoy the Tour de France, yet I have never sat on a bicycle in my life. Even if you've just arrived in from Mars you have to have respect for a guy with no lower legs who can run the 100m in 11 seconds . . . or a backstroke swimmer with no arms who grips a towel in her teeth to support herself before kicking off.