Paralympics anyone watching

I see what you did there.

I take back what i said, that is the thing isnt it, to seperate and to segregate is saying its something different. Which it shouldnt be classed as. But then some para's would like for it to be seen as different but you could in a sense liken that to me wearing glasses although that is seen as normal even though it is by some classed as a disability.

It is not rocket science, do it all one time.

Highlandsflyer:

Of course there is high jump for 5' 7" people.

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Sorry, I was being a little flippant...I recognise that I am free to participate, but my point was that there's no Olympic medal for the highest jump by someone under 5'7" (or such); the equivalent of the IPC classification system. I will always be rubbish at high jump but being a bit short is not disabling enough to glean sufficient sympathy from the AB sport authorities, or the wider audience, to get a special event, because being averagely short is fully normalised in our society. Being really short is a different matter.

There are undoubted benefits from promoting sport including increased well being and reduced healthcare costs in the disabled community. In addition the consequential higher public profile helps to remove some of the stigma and fear surrounding disability. However, some advocates believe that the essential concept of IPC disability sport reinforces the position of disabled people as special cases (at best seen as inspiring 'brave cripples') rather than normalising them in sports participation and the wider community.

Sleep well.

The trouble is as soon as we allow 'special cases', everyone wants to be a special case as the position has perceived benefits and everyone wants to get more out of life. And so we have a society of special cases and with that an industry set up to help the special cases and people unhappy because they do not have the necessary criteria to be included in a special case grouping. Can you believe it, there are people who actually want to be disabled and try their damnedest via various professionals to be awarded a label, I understand a lot of it as attention seeking, but isn't it sad people have to go to such lengths because of a perceived benefit of being a special case ?

Now too many special cases or indeed a special case and we have a society of individuals, different tiers of society within the same socio economic grouping all augmented by professional diagnosi, that is not cohesiveness, that's individualism in everything and individuals are not teams and so where is that idyll; teamwork that the motivators are trying to instill ?

But having said that, no way am I interested in competition, so sport does not interest me not in the slightest and I have tried to be interested just to fit in, but it's not me simple as, in fact as soon as someone tries to compete with me, I let them win or tell them to go forth and multiply.

What I don't get is why the BBC are not covering the para's in the same way they covered the norms's.
There must be some BBC mandate that makes them or at least they should get a hell of a lot of backlash. At the very least I hope they lend the 24 Olympic HD channels and help out Channel4 (who to be fair do broadcast a lot of para events). It's just as entertaining, if not more in some cases, than the 'able' one.


The irony of the Torch relay itself is many in the official able relay where disabled or did it for disability charities :roll:

FluffyChicken":21gff8ct said:

What I don't get is why the BBC are not covering the para's in the same way they covered the norms's.
There must be some BBC mandate that makes them or at least they should get a hell of a lot of backlash. At the very least I hope they lend the 24 Olympic HD channels and help out Channel4 (who to be fair do broadcast a lot of para events). It's just as entertaining, if not more in some cases, than the 'able' one.


The irony of the Torch relay itself is many in the official able relay where disabled or did it for disability charities :roll:

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Ahh yes i forgot it was channel 4 doing it. Now im not a grumpy person but coming home from work and being able to easily watch some of the sports cheered me up. Lots of spirit. Im no sporting person either but then i dont watch for that, i watch purely because they are the worlds best sports people and that is a sight to behold.

I remember now, some of them. That is ironic.

Channel 4 have started showing some programs already ('warm ups') which have been good. Channel 4 documentaries are normally pretty good.