Opening of 2008 Beijing Paralympics - photo gallery

[Catty1]

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/paralympics/mediagallery/photos/?dataPath=/photogallery/olympics2008/gallery_1569/xml/gallery_1569.xml

Athletes to watch:

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/paralympics/mediagallery/photos/?dataPath=/photogallery/olympics2008/gallery_1555/xml/gallery_1555.xml

[RICHARD]

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/paralympics/mediagallery/photos/?dataPath=/photogallery/olympics2008/gallery_1569/xml/gallery_1569.xml

Athletes to watch:

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/paralympics/mediagallery/photos/?dataPath=/photogallery/olympics2008/gallery_1555/xml/gallery_1555.xml

Do I really have anything to complain about?


I was watching the channels in Espanol and saw a wonderful piece about a Mexican athlete who will compete.

With one leg.

Swimming.

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I really enjoy the Games. Probably way too much.

I get excited when I see a Phelps compete and win, It gets old very quickly watching him hawk stuff for corporations and seeing his picture everywhere.

Being the fastest, best, strongest is a wonderful thing. There will be a story or two about a 12 or thirteen year old kid that will show up in London and do something extraordinary, spurred on by a swimmer with a bunch of medals and a cereal box picture.

So what do we know about a one legged Mexican dude that cannot dress himself, had problems eating, gettting around, opening doors or cleaning himself after he goes to the BR?

NOTHING.

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A week ago Jim Rome, a rather obnoxious moron who reports on sports was
talking about the Beijing Games and the decathalon, the person who wins that title is known as the World's Greatest Athlete for doing well in 10 events over two days. The kid that won it, Brian Clay was miffed about MP being named the WGA. And I agree. If you can do one thing well, o.k.-If you can do 10 well, over two days and kick the world's arse?

You got my vote.

We tend to focus every two years on some skater, swimmer, skier, runner that wins a bunch and makes us feel good.

We do lose sight of the people who have to 'win' everyday, doing the small things we take for granted.

Swim fast? I guess I am impressed. I am too old and too slow to even worry about that.

I am more wrapped up in staying one step ahead of life.

Clean my bum? Switch on a light fixture? Heat a bowl of soup?

I am world class!

Swim with one leg. Ah, I can barely swim with all the required limbs. Like the old line goes, He'd be as busy as a one legged man in an arse kicking contest.

I am not going to give him a chance to kick mine, I know when to quit.;):p

Am I more than impressed and not willing to get into a pool and compete against a man, who competes internationally, with one leg. So, MP may be a world class swimmer, this Mexican kid is a classy, world athlete. He'll practice day after day, in relative obscurity while Phelps makes the rounds, under the spotlight of doing one thing well.


But I'd really like to see MP and this one legged guy go head to head, not in the pool, in life.

We'll tie MP's arms together and make him sit in a wheelchair and see how a bunch of gold plated pieces of metal can help him clean his keister, button a shirt or open a box of cereal, with his picture on it, no less.

[critters]

EXCELLENT post, Richard!!

[lvpets2002]

:love: I think its so Great.. Now will they broadcast so we can watch??

[RICHARD]

:love: I think its so Great.. Now will they broadcast so we can watch??

Clips are being show on the Paralympics site and they have result too.

I have looked all over my cable for anything...nope nothing.

If I find programs I'll let you know!

Did you know that there are even equestrian events happening?:D

[RICHARD]

http://www.nowpublic.com/sports/beijing-paralympics-2008-all-gold-medal-winners-and-medal-tally-212

Check out how they have modified some sports to allow people to compete.:)

You tube has videos posted.

[RICHARD]

The US women won a gold in the WC basketball final!!!:cool:

[Catty1]

It's the Paralympics, but Chantal Petitclerc's coach says she's just an amazing athlete, period. She's 38 - and retiring!

Here's an action pic from one of the CBC links above (have to click this link):
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/paralympics/mediagallery/photos/?dataPath=/photogallery/olympics2008/gallery_1555/xml/gallery_1555.xml

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080917.PETITCLERC17/TPStory/Sports
Petitclerc shows that 'everything is possible'
Decorated wheelchair athlete adds five more golds before bowing out as a Canadian trailblazer

JAMES CHRISTIE

With reports from Sean Gordon in Montreal and The Canadian Press in Beijing

September 17, 2008

Chantal Petitclerc competes in a low-slung racing wheelchair, yet by the time she retired from the track yesterday with five more gold medals at the Paralympic Games in Beijing, the 38-year-old from Montreal had risen above almost every other Canadian.

http://images.theglobeandmail.com/v5/images/newspaper/20080917/sectionS-188.jpg
Nation builder. Trailblazer. Sports hero.

"She has been one fabulous role model, a splendid athlete and she deserves all the success she's earned the hard way," International Olympic Committee member Richard Pound said.

"Racing her, you want to get tough and beat her, but at the same time, you are in awe of her," Shelly Woods of Britain said. "She's a big inspiration for me, one of my heroines."

Petitclerc rolled into retirement with 14 gold medals from five Paralympic Games and was Canada's highlight performer in Beijing. Yesterday, the Canadian men's wheelchair basketball team came away with a silver medal, losing the final to Australia 72-60.

There has been as much to admire about Petitclerc off the racetrack as on it. Petitclerc, who lost the use of her legs as a 13-year-old when a heavy barn door fell on her, has been synonymous with both sports excellence and the integration of people with disabilities into the Canadian mainstream. In 2004, she was chosen as a Nation Builder by The Globe and Mail.

She has been a symbol for the recognition of wheelchair athletes as equal players, rather than victims of accidents. She recalled that, in 1990, she and fellow racer Jeff Adams of Brampton, Ont., were being ordered off tracks because their wheels might damage the running surface. Wheelchair athletes were being summoned to team meetings that required they get out of their chairs and crawl up or down flights of stairs to attend. It fuelled the fight for equal treatment.

In 2002, in Manchester, England, Petitclerc was the first Canadian athlete in a wheelchair to gain a Commonwealth Games medal that was included officially in the count for Canada, no more a demonstration or exhibition participant. In 2006, at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, she led the Canadian team into the massive Melbourne Cricket Grounds as the flag-bearer.

"To me, this is the ultimate proof that if you have a strong commitment to your goals and dreams, if you wake up every day with a passion to do your job or your sport, everything is possible."

After the Athens Olympics in 2004, Petitclerc was chosen as Chatelaine magazine's woman of the year and finished third in a survey of most-admired people from Quebec - behind former premier René Lévesque, writer and actress Janette Bertrand and ahead of singer Celine Dion. Part of that owes to Petitclerc's frequent appearances on Quebec's French-language talk-show circuit.

In the sports world, coach Peter Eriksson said Petitclerc made the Paralympics more professional and competitive.

"She took it to a whole different level with her professionalism, with everything she has done and the results she has done," he said.

Petitclerc ended her Paralympic career dominating the 1,500 metres to earn her fifth gold medal of the Beijing Games. In an uncharacteristic gesture, she pumped her fists in the air even before she crossed the finish line. It was jubilation and farewell at the same time.

"I knew I was going to win the race," she said. "When I looked up and saw I was on my own, it was a bonus.

"These Games have been so good. I just felt like it was a gift to finish it all alone."

Petitclerc hasn't lost in 10 consecutive Paralympic races dating back to 2004. She has a total of 21 medals, including five silver and two bronze.

Petitclerc won the 1,500 metres in 3 minutes 39.88 seconds. Woods was second in 3:40.99, while Edith Hunkeler of Switzerland took third place in 3:41.03. Diane Roy of Hatley, Que., was eighth in 3:43.66.

Petitclerc now ranks as one of Canada's most decorated Paralympic athletes. Michael Edgson, a blind swimmer who now lives in Delta, B.C., won 18 gold and three silver medals over three Games.

Although Petitclerc plans to retire from the Paralympics, she will continue to do wheelchair road races.

Though her career will follow a different path, she said she always will remember that moment she crossed the finish line at the Bird's Nest, arms raised, winning her final Paralympic medal. She could still conquer the world she'd helped build.

"The depth of the field has grown," she said. "To be able to do the same thing I did in Athens ... this is the best ever."