#paralympics sports

[rihanziad]

'Spectacular' Paris Paralympics to open on Wednesday

Elizabeth Hudson, Emma Smith and Alan Jewell

Paris has promised a Games to remember as it gets ready to host the 2024 Paralympics.

After the delayed Tokyo Games in 2021 had to be held without fans because of the Covid pandemic, and Rio 2016 was dogged by financial issues, the pressure is on Paris to deliver an event to rival  or even better the London 2012 Games.

Wednesday's opening ceremony at 19:00 BST will be focused on the Place de la Concorde, with the first of the 549 gold medals to be awarded the following day.

Read More Read More

[mrbeastcr7]

Paris 2024 Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony: Preview, how to watch, plus highlights of first two days of competition

On Wednesday 28 August, Paris will host its first-ever Paralympic Games, and will begin with a spectacular Opening Ceremony in the heart of France's capital.

Go

[cy-cyborg]

So, there's a lot I want to say about the paralypics, but every time I try I just... can't articulate what I want to say without it turning into a monster of a post that puts my writing advice posts to shame lol. This includes in response to the anonymous asks I got on the topic btw. So I'm going to try and summarise my thoughts here.

As someone who was working towards the Rio paralympics - who was basically one of the people they were actively training to be the next paralympians and who got to go if their choice first athletes had to drop out, the Olympics and paralympics are a... touchy subject for me. I loved playing. I loved my sport. I loved the people I played with. I loved the people I played against. But the way the public and people in power treats disabled athletes sucks. It Really really sucks. and it hurts to talk about.

The vast, vast majority of us aren't paid. We are expected to train at the same intensity as the Olympians with none of the breaks and none of the support to do so, resulting in injuries that are disabling in and of themselves, while juggling normal jobs. many of the paralympians are also in school or at university as well. both schools and jobs see these elite athletes as dedicated hobbiests at best.

I had a friend who were fired from their job because they were denied time off to compete at the paralypics and well, if i had to choose between the paralympics or stay at a shit job paying minimum wage, I know which one I'd pick, and so she didnt have a job when she came back. I have friends who are still in the closet because their sponsors would drop them if they came out as gay, who ended years-long relationships to keep the funding that allowed them and their teams to compete - funding that just covered the costs of travel by the way. They never saw a cent of it themselves, but it was the difference between us having to pay $50 each for our plane tickets and accommodation and having to pay $2,000Aud + for every away game. I have friends who were supposed to go to Tokeyo but were kicked off the teams weeks before the games because of a rule change that decided they weren't disabled enough anymore, wasting years of work with absolutely no warning. They weren't even given the decency of an appology from the people who made the call. Several went through terrifying mental health spirals over it. It was their life's work, gone. I saw so many friends just give up because their disabilities were "too hard to classify" into the International Paralympic Commity's boxes and who were made to feel they weren't welcome by the system spouting off about its diversity and inclusion and empowerment of disabled people.

And then with all that, the best we can hope for is for the social media teams to turn us into a joke for ableds to laugh at or into inspiration porn to make them feel good about themselves - because at least theyre not us. Because obviously, there are no other options in how to show us/sarcasm.

My phone doesn't even have "paralympics" as a recognised word. I have a Samsung. The company that is currently at the paralympics using them as a marketing opertunity. We aren't even recognised as a word in the phones made by the company that is currently using the paralympics as a marketing opportunity. The phones they're giving the athletes won't even recognise the name of the event that they got it at. If I've spelt it wrong, it's because it autocorrects it every time I try to spell it right, and im dyslexic and can't see the difference until I stare at it for a minute or so.

I just... this isn't even scratching the surface of my thoughts. But I wanted to say at least some of it. It will be the last I'm going to talk about it, at least until the event is over.

[pwhl-mybeloved]

[demaparbat-hp]

Toph as a Goalball player 💪💚

[iguanadonis]

renaissance poses from the Paralympics this summer... televise para sports forever !!!

[cowsabungus]

Murderball!!

I play this and it's amazing, deffo recommend watching or giving it a go if you get the chance! Watch it in the Paralympics on the 29th of August and you won't be disappointed

[iventig]

BEHOLD

THE OLYMPIC NAZGÛL ON HIS WAY TO THE FIRE

A FRENCH ASSASSIN

AND THE BURNING FAKE PIANO

OLYMPICS OF THE GAY,BEGIN!

It was a great show though.

[oolhan]

🚨🚨🚨im sorry but i just HAVE TO announce that hunter woodhall and tara davis is real life everlark🚨🚨🚨 just look at this one???

everlark.

[cy-cyborg-draws]

The Paralympics start Today!

I wanted to celebrate by continuing Australia's tradition of using (definitely not) furry characters to represent our athletes lol. Wheelchair basketball was my sport back when i was playing, so i have a soft spot for it, and Australia's women's team are The Gliders, so i went with a basketball playing sugar-glider character!

I had plans to do a few more characters for different para-sports before the Paralympics end but things have come up and I'm not sure I'll have the time for more, but I really want to!

On a little side note I thought about while drawing this, having a long tail (movable or not) would be a nightmare in both wheelchair basketball and rugby lol - you aren't supposed to hit people from behind but it does inevitably happen a lot, quite aggressively, and even tucking the tail underneath the frame wouldn't protect all of it in a collision.

ID: A digital, cell-shaded illustration of an anthropomorphic sugar-glider wearing a green and gold Australian basketball singlet, holding an orange basketball in her right hand, as though she is getting ready to throw it. She is sitting in a teal high-pointer's basketball wheelchair, which is a tall with slanted wheels. /End ID

[bobcatmoran]

Watching the Paralympics swimming finals from today, and dang. The S1 men's 100 m backstroke. Paralympians are categorized from S1-S10 for physical impairment, with 1 being the most severe. There was one swimmer who had no use of his arms and frog kicked as his sole means of swimming 100 m. I would have died. I can't swim 100 meters with use of all my limbs. I

I'm fascinated at all the different techniques these ridiculously talented swimmers use, based on their disabilities. There's a Brazillian swimmer in S2 backstroke, dos Santos Araujo, who doesn't have arms and is basically dolphin kicking on his back and is ZOOMING. He won the gold easily. I kind of love his scooter, which is set up for him to drive with his feet.

You see single armed backstrokes, swimmers who are using a double-armed technique because it provides more stability but are still going so fast, people who use a flutter kick, frog kick, and again, dos Santos Araujo rocketing with a sort of modified dolphin kick. I'm impressed at how the swimmers whose use of limbs are weighted to one side manage to stay straight.

The stadium is packed and they lose their minds whenever there's a French swimmer.

If you're in the US, you can watch this on Peacock. The USA network is also showing a fair number of Paralympic events, and NBC will have end-of-week highlights in prime time this Sunday at 7 PM ET and at 9 PM ET on September 6.

[alexbkrieger13]

[oifaaa]

I know they did it mostly to hype up the sports festival arc but implying that in a world dominated by quirks that people wouldn't be able to use them in the Olympics or if the implication is they are able to use them it's just still less interesting then watching a group of teens from one highschool beat the shit out of each other either way it's kinda insane

[cy-cyborg]

I realised my recent paralympics posts could be read as, "i hate the paralympics" kind of stuff and thats not what i wanted. Its important to be able to critisise the things we love, and the reason why i had so many strong feelings/opinions is because i do genuinely love and care about the Paralympics and disability sports as a whole. So with the paralympics due to start in a few weeks (the 28th of August) please, if you're able to, tune in, even if it's just for the highlights.

The Paralympics themselves have a lot of issues which I already talked about, but a good amount of those issues stem from a perceived lack of interest/care from the public and the idea that "no one will care" if things arent right for us. It's much harder to justify not paying the athletes as much as their abled counterparts when they get the same publicity, it's harder for the organisers and people behind the scenes to get away with mistreatment when there's more eyes watching and more pressure to fix the issues. The athletes deserve respect, they deserve equal pay (which mostly comes from advertisers/sponsors, which depend on viewership) and their hard work deserves to be seen as more than just a funny joke or inspiration porn tear-jerker. Engage with places that treat the event and participants with the dignity it deserves.

If you're in Australia, channel 9 will be showing and streaming the highlights for free, but Stan Sports will be showing everything from every event - which is an absolutely MASSIVE thing. The entire paralympics have never been televised in Australia before, its only ever been highlights and some of the games of the more well-known sports. It sucks its locked behind a premium paywall but so was the full Olympics coverage this year, so it's not fully unique to us at least.

As for international viewers, try and find where things are for you and if they aren't being shown, put pressure on your TV networks/streaming services to include it for next time, or to include similar things like the disabled events at the commonwealth games (for those in commonwealth countries) or other global disabled sporting events - which can include sports not in the Paralympics!

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

How Brazil became a Paralympic power

As the Paris Paralympic Games come to a close, Brazil emerged stronger than ever, securing its best result in history and solidifying its position as a global leader in parasports. 

With a haul of 25 golds, 26 silvers, and 38 bronzes, Brazil finished fifth in the medal standings, further building on its legacy of athletic excellence since breaking into the top 10 at the 2008 Beijing Games.

Brazil’s Paralympic performance could have been even stronger if the men’s blind football team had secured gold instead of settling for the bronze. A semifinal loss to Argentina kept Brazil out of the gold medal match for the first time ever — breaking a five-title streak and denying the country a chance to surpass the Netherlands for fourth place in the overall standings.

This year’s result cements Brazil’s reputation as a global powerhouse in Paralympic sports, particularly track and field and swimming. The Brazil Team put up a performance that almost surpassed the most optimistic projections of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee (CPB) ahead of Paris. The CPB believed the country would win between 70 and 90 medals, with some experts predicting a top 5 finish.

Continue reading.

[cemeterygrace]

snoop dogg lady gaga peyton manning celine dion these were not people i was expecting to see at the olympics what is this a crossover episode