Well, did you, the good people of America, enjoy the coverage of the Paralympics? Wasn’t it fantastic? Wasn’t it inspiring? Wasn’t it awesome!
Of course, I don’t expect you to take this question seriously. There was very little interest shown across the pond in this sporting extravaganza.
The US television networks were not keen on offering coverage of the Paralympics, and (as I understand) few if any of the major newspapers have had much to say on the subject. Was there full front-page coverage in the major New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas or L.A. papers? I doubt it. There’s a story going around of an American businessman whose disabled son was due to compete in London. He came to the UK late during the Paralympic programme of events and was handed a British newspaper during his flight to Heathrow. He was astonished to see seven pages in a national newspaper dedicated to the Paralympics. He said, “Is this really happening? What’s going on in London?”
It is impossible to believe that people who so value courage and sacrifice as Americans do, were not interested in supporting their athletes like gold medal cyclist, Joseph Berenyi or gold medal swimmer, Mallory Weggeman. Many American athletes came to London competing after surviving motorcycle accidents, avalanches, comas and disease, being maimed while fighting in Iraq, and a host of other challenges. Why is your media, unwilling to see these Games as sport - instead of a spectacle?
People in the UK (especially the young) now see our Paralympians as a new generation of heroes and role models.
11 million people in Britain watched the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games - exceptionally good viewing figures for Channel 4, and in fact pretty good viewing figures for any TV programme in the modern age of multichannel upon multichannel television.
Despite the United States having one of the largest Paralympic teams, it was reported here that there would be less than 6 hours coverage in total of the Paralympics shown on US TV (Channel 4 showed more hours per day of competition) and some of which will not air until after the end of the Paralympic competition. I find it incredible that in the United States the major TV networks didn’t think there was enough of a demand to give extensive coverage to the Paralympics, despite the fact that global viewership of the Paralympics topped 4 billion!
Is it too much to ask that we afford disabled sport due respect by giving equivalent coverage to the Paralympics that the Olympics gets?
Sadly, the major commercial TV networks in the United States couldn’t find time in their schedules of mundane daytime soap operas and brain-dead quiz shows to air the pinnacle of sporting excellence for people with disabilities.
I hope that because there appears to be a lack of interest for the Paralympics by the US media, that people with disabilities are not still marginalised in the United States.
Just in terms of what non-swimmers might want to watch on TV, I doubt blind swimming is any more compelling than old swimming.
Exactly. A blind swimmer, a swimmers with no arms, an 80 year breaking a world record for his/her age group are all great achievements, but at the end of the day they are all swimmers swimming significantly slower than someone who wins a gold medal at the Olympics.
Just in terms of what non-swimmers might want to watch on TV, I doubt blind swimming is any more compelling than old swimming.
Exactly. A blind swimmer, a swimmers with no arms, an 80 year breaking a world record for his/her age group are all great achievements, but at the end of the day they are all swimmers swimming significantly slower than someone who wins a gold medal at the Olympics.
