Photos of the 2008 Paralympics

September 12, 2008 3:37 PM

Photos of the 2008 Paralympics.Sadly the Paralympics rarely garners the coverage of the Olympics, but thanks to the internet you can witch videos of the competitions at Universal Sports (though it may be region-blocked, require registration and only seems to work on Windows).
posted by GuyZero (30 comments total)

Glad to see half the cast of MURDERBALL on the Wheelchair Rugby squad. Go Team USA!
posted by bjork24 at 3:48 PM on September 12, 2008

I really like the photo of those injured by the earthquake in China watching the competition. How great it must feel to have such a massive event showing people not being held back by their physical condition.

The aspect ratio of the photos is also interesting.
posted by jsonic at 3:56 PM on September 12, 2008

rarely garners?! When has the Paralympics EVER garnered the coverage the Olympics has?

Go USSailing (new window) (Nick Scandone is the former coach of a friend of mine and an inspiration to all)!
posted by yiftach at 4:02 PM on September 12, 2008

Yeah, hardly would be better than rarely. or never. Yeah. Which completely sucks because I find these people much more compelling than the "regular" Olympians of the world.
posted by GuyZero at 4:07 PM on September 12, 2008

Goalball is a game played by two teams of three partially sighted or blind players. They try to score goals with a large ball containing bells, allowing players to hear oncoming throws.

I'm not blind, but I think throwing on a blindfold and playing Goalball right now would be an absolute hoot.

And, pardon the sighted-centricness, this is probably great fun to watch, too. "Left, dammit! Left! LEFFFFT!!!"
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:07 PM on September 12, 2008

I can't find it online, but the favorite photo I've seen from this year's Paralympics is of a one-legged track cyclist competing. (Using one leg, not one leg + prosthetic.) Has anyone else seen it?
posted by Airhen at 4:09 PM on September 12, 2008

I think you mean Dedan Ireri?
posted by GuyZero at 4:14 PM on September 12, 2008

WOW. Yeah, so as much as I've enjoyed some of the photography from the more publicized games, these are WAY MORE impressive. Just wow. I really need to find a way to watch these events from now on, because they are far cooler than I would have ever guessed.
posted by Stunt at 4:42 PM on September 12, 2008

The Paralympics is broadcast daily, for several hours, on ABC2, Australia's National Broadcaster's second digital channel. Every day, there are also at least two or three hours of "highlights" shown on ABC1, the main channel.

So it gets quite a bit of coverage here in Australia. Not as much as the Olympics of course, but I infer quite a bit more than it gets in the US.

That's a shame. The paralympians are elite athletes at the top of their game. Inspirational not only for their athleticism, but also for the adversity they have overcome. It's also great to watch. The US wheelchair basketball team are badass! Of course, having beaten teh Australians at the final of their group, I hope the two teams meet again and the Aussies win.

If no channel in the US broadcasts the Paralympics, you should write in and ask why.

Great viewing. Inspirational examples. Exciting contests. Humbling athletes.

What's not to like?
posted by Mephisto at 4:47 PM on September 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

Fascinating pictures. Can anyone link to an explanation of the "SM7", "T44", "T11", etc. classifications?

I have watched my university's wheelchair basketball team and they are indeed amazing.
posted by pheideaux at 5:01 PM on September 12, 2008

BBC: Making Sense of the Categories

On the Paralympics site they break this down for each sport, but there's no central list. For example: Archery, Judo. The list of Paralympic sports.
posted by GuyZero at 5:13 PM on September 12, 2008

The ParalympicSportTV channel on YouTube is putting up videos. Appear to be licensed properly.

ParalympicSportTV
posted by wildcrdj at 5:27 PM on September 12, 2008 [2 favorites]

Awesome!
posted by caddis at 5:31 PM on September 12, 2008

That YouTube channel is great. Holy crap those wheelchair racers go fat.
posted by GuyZero at 5:40 PM on September 12, 2008

FAST. geez.
posted by GuyZero at 5:41 PM on September 12, 2008

I'm curious about Thierry Mabicka. Was the problem that he was using a wheelchair with gears? It looks like he has a less advanced chair, but I can't imagine that would disqualify him.
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:46 PM on September 12, 2008

I was going to say Wow. Just Wow, but Stunt beat me to it. What the heck. Wow. Just Wow.
posted by nax at 5:53 PM on September 12, 2008

In the results PDFs it lists his DQ reasons as "R 163.3" (ref). Though I can't find what the heck rule 163.3 is. My guess is that it's not a 3-wheeled racing chair.
posted by GuyZero at 5:55 PM on September 12, 2008

Great photos. Some of those games seem like they'd be very cool spectator sports, but I haven't stumbled across any TV coverage.

Also very happy to see via those pics that an Irish athlete won a bronze there, something our non-fighting non-paralympic athletes haven't done for bleedin years.
posted by jamesonandwater at 6:27 PM on September 12, 2008

I think I have a new man-crush... Tom Aggar (Britain) in the men's sculling. HOT!!!!!!
posted by matty at 6:49 PM on September 12, 2008

jamesonandwater

Michael McKillop took gold in the 800m, breaking his own World Record in the process.

Maith an buachaill!!!
posted by Mephisto at 6:54 PM on September 12, 2008

Amazing. Thank you, and big thanks for that youtube channel link. I am embarrassingly ignorant.
posted by Shutter at 8:01 PM on September 12, 2008

The Paralympics look way more difficult than the regular olympics. It's all blind people playing soccer and people with no legs running.
posted by chunking express at 8:36 PM on September 12, 2008

People without arms playing table tennis and shooting bows! Why watch the regular olympics?
posted by chunking express at 8:40 PM on September 12, 2008

What great photographs of utterly inspiring people. Breathtakingly wonderful. The kind of thing that fills me with a rush of oomph, energy and drive. The crashes and spills ones made me flinch.

Adding to the beauty: Nude photos of Para-Olympians [nsfw].
posted by nickyskye at 10:59 PM on September 12, 2008

Okay, that's just hardcore badass[nsfw].

Awesome post and links, thanks!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:24 PM on September 12, 2008

I can't find it online, but the favorite photo I've seen from this year's Paralympics is of a one-legged track cyclist competing. (Using one leg, not one leg + prosthetic.) Has anyone else seen it?

Is it this photo of the Chinese cyclist Tang Qi?
posted by hellopanda at 12:01 AM on September 13, 2008

Whoa, that photo of Tang Qi is incredible!
posted by nickyskye at 12:30 AM on September 13, 2008

Unfortunately, my friend's sister-in-law didn't make the medal in the Mixed rowing. Close though...#4. Definitely something to be proud of. (Victoria Nolan, if interested...I've never met her, but read a number of pages about her. Very interesting person)
posted by Kickstart70 at 11:48 AM on September 13, 2008

The Paralympics are getting decent coverage here in China as well, with coverage of games on a couple different national channels and highlights on the evening news. Great stuff, even better than the normal Olympics because the pressure to medal is lower, there are many more inspirational player bios (for some reason), and short segments explaining the rules of the games before they are broadcast.
posted by msittig at 2:18 PM on September 13, 2008