h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Mixer,

You are quite right, the Paralympics hasn't stimulated much conversation or excitement on this forum. It is being pretty well covered on ABC here, and the crowds have been fantastic - they exceeded one million by the sixth day, which was more than the organisers had predicted for the entire fortnight. There have been some super performances, a lot of drama, tension-filled competitions; it has the lot. For myself, I view the competition both for the sheer sporting prowess and the incredible ability of human beings to overcome the most daunting setbacks. And the other thing is that most of these athletes are financing themselves through chook raffles and sales of home-made jams and cakes at the local village hall and whatnot. For most meets outside of the Olympics or the World championships, they probably have to pay to get into the stadiums. Take care,

Walter.

G'day there Walter. NZ TV has sent a crew to Sydney to cover the Paralympics. Concentrating mainly on the Kiwis - who are doing fantastically well - a 30-minute package fronted by Holmes (think Hinch) is shown at 10pm each night. In my (and a lot of my friends) opinion it is a must-see show. It's a pity it isn't longer. Highlights (and medal ceremonies) are being shown on the main 6pm news bulletin.

Alas, I didn't win any of the lead-up chook raffles.

Loony

Hi Loony,

A tip, cobber: always buy the jams or the cakes, that way everyone wins.

We have about six hours of radio coverage and a one hour package each day. Channel 7, the 'official' Olympics broadcaster, declined to do the Paralympics opening ceremony live, offering instead a thirty-minute highlights programme at around eleven or so in the evening. So the ABC picked up the 'rights' essentially by default: they ran the whole thing live from start to finish and it rated a tad under fifty, which is the BIGGEST bar none viewing audience EVER for our national broadcaster. Seven's movie or whatever dragged about ten ratings points, which is about 9.5 more than the mongrels deserved. And another thing, Loony, that gets right up my nose is where have all the Nikes, Qantas's, Toyotas, Holdens, Telstras et al disappeared to, along with their sponsorship money?

Nice win to England, but who really gives a tinker's about the one day game? Take care,

Walter.

I was delighted to see how brilliantly the British athletes did in the Paralympics (second in the medals table - beaten only by Australia). However, it has made me wonder why we have done so well in the Paralympics compared to the Olympics. Is it that we value it more highly than other countries or is there some other reason? It would appear that the athletes in the Paralympics have less sponsorship than those in the Olympics, but perhaps I am wrong.

I would be interested to hear any comments on this....

Hi Slug!

Some time ago there was a discussion here about wether the athletes with the olympic games are still amateurs or not, and I was told that today there are hardly any amateurs within the top ranks of the contests. I think with at the paralympic games the most competitors are amateurs
Perhaps this difference is at least partly the reason for wildly differing "results" in the olympic and the paralympic games.
I'm not quite shure if this is true, but this is what came immediately to my mind upon reading your question.

Hope anyone can verify this!