Paralympics thread.

[mondatoo]

Anyone watching/going ?

Great first day for GB, 2 Golds, 3 Silvers and 2 bronze, congrats to them all. I have to get a moan in ldo; wish this was on the BBC as there coverage of the Olympics was immense. I watched some of the judo this morning, Channel 4 decided to go to the presenters set for them to have a conversation whilst Ben Quilter for GB was in the middle of his fight, they then went back when he'd lost a point, pretty wierd so I tiltingly turned it off.

[mondatoo]

Incredible scenes in the Cycling. In the Womans persuit final the GB lass overtook her opponent without even being half way through the race, commentator mentioned that she was just off the time to qualify for the able bodied Olympics team, amazing. I assume I'm right in thinking it's extremely rare that anyone would overtake there opponent at this level ?

[tikay]

Anyone watching/going ?

Great first day for GB, 2 Golds, 3 Silvers and 2 bronze, congrats to them all. I have to get a moan in ldo; wish this was on the BBC as there coverage of the Olympics was immense. I watched some of the judo this morning, Channel 4 decided to go to the presenters set for them to have a conversation whilst Ben Quilter for GB was in the middle of his fight, they then went back when he'd lost a point, pretty wierd so I tiltingly turned it off.

That was utterly disgraceful, what WAS the Producer thinking?

[Sheriff Fatman]

Anyone watching/going ?

Great first day for GB, 2 Golds, 3 Silvers and 2 bronze, congrats to them all. I have to get a moan in ldo; wish this was on the BBC as there coverage of the Olympics was immense. I watched some of the judo this morning, Channel 4 decided to go to the presenters set for them to have a conversation whilst Ben Quilter for GB was in the middle of his fight, they then went back when he'd lost a point, pretty wierd so I tiltingly turned it off.

I went to the Opening Ceremony, which was a fantastic experience.  Watched a bit of it back from the recording last night to see how it came across on TV but can't remember there being any adverts in the live version!

Got tickets for the final Saturday (Excel Day pass, Orbit and Athletics) but struggling with Channel 4's coverage in the meantime.

[AndrewT]

Was a bit puzzled by people complaining about adverts - it's Channel 4, do they think it magically pays for itself?

And yes, the programmes are going to be nowhere near as slick as the BBC, because half the presenters have been selected because they are disabled and who have way less experience at presenting live TV.

One place where the Paralympics does suffer is that there are quite a few events where one of the competitors is miles and miles better than everyone else (like Sarah Storey in the cycling yesterday) so the result is not in doubt so it loses excitement as a sporting contest. On the flip side of this, the wheelchair basketball game between GB and Germany last night was fantastic, because it was close, and also because it's a better game than than able-bodied basketball as there are fewer mystifying fouls.

I've got a day pass for the Excel tomorrow so will see some stuff down there.

[kinboshi]

C4 got one thing right, bringing Clare Balding in.

[the sicilian]

Watched the basketball last night and was totally into it.. was a great game and the intensity and competition was fantastic.... however am I right in believing Sarah Storey's disablement is that she is missing one hand ? if so how much does this really effect her performance ? to me she has a distinct and unfair advantage. If you chopped off Vicky pendletons hand would Sarah storey get close ? I think Sarah really should be competing in the standard Olympics instead of gaining hollow victories.


Its a PC minefield commenting on the Paraolympics in any sort of negative way without coming across as a tool but I do think the majority of the competitors are truly amazing to overcome some serious disability's to even compete, but I have issues with people who are virtually unaffected by their disability competing against people who are truly handicapped in the event, and yes I do know there are different classes.

Also watched the weight lifting with the dwarfs? is that the PC term. They said it was a dead lift competition when in fact they are bench pressing...dead lift is a completely different exercises...

[Sheriff Fatman]

Was a bit puzzled by people complaining about adverts - it's Channel 4, do they think it magically pays for itself?

I wasn't expecting no adverts, but assumed that they'd be at the start and end of the ceremony, not in the middle of a continuous ceremony.

It's akin to ITV going to ads in the middle of the 1st half of a game (the inadvertant trial of this in the England vs USA wasnt overly popular!)

[Tonji]

Channel 4 doing a pretty good job imo. Good mix of presenters, with excellent knowledge of Para sport. Insightfull background clips of the GB athletes.

[AndrewT]

Was a bit puzzled by people complaining about adverts - it's Channel 4, do they think it magically pays for itself?

I wasn't expecting no adverts, but assumed that they'd be at the start and end of the ceremony, not in the middle of a continuous ceremony.

It's akin to ITV going to ads in the middle of the 1st half of a game (the inadvertant trial of this in the England vs USA wasnt overly popular!)

The ceremony was 3 and a half hours long, and expected to be one of Channel 4's most watched programmes. The adverts also tended to coincide with scenery changes when we weren't missing much - the sections in the ceremony took longer to move between because disabled performers take a bit longer to get into position.

[tikay]

C4 got one thing right, bringing Clare Balding in.

She is pretty much Ch4 Property now - she has signed up to head their Horseracing output.

She is incredible, too, does her research so thoroughly, almost Peter O'Sullevan-like in that respect.

[mondatoo]

I wasn't criticising the presenters at all, just the decision to not show the judo when it was live, resulting in missing an important part of it, especially when it was a GB athlete who was a medal hope. I liked the fact the BBC were a bit biased. I've been watching it this morning and the coverage is good.

Surely missing a hand makes it quite a lot more difficult to cycle for grip etc. Think saying it's a hollow victory is a bit unfair on her, the people that set the rules of the classifications for entry know a lot more about this than me and she meets that so seems fair enough to me.

Does Oscar Pistorious complete in the Paralympics ? I'm sure if he does he will also annihilate the field but if he's entitled to participate then he should. (lol commentator just mentioned he's coming up, com timing). He's 4/1 to win the 100, 200 & 400m, so maybe he won't crush as much as I expected.

[Graham C]

The bit of blind football they showed was entertaining, could watch more of that.

[Sheriff Fatman]

He's at risk in the 100m this time.  Still a strong favourite in the 400m though AFAIK.

[Jon MW]

...
Surely missing a hand makes it quite a lot more difficult to cycle for grip etc. Think saying it's a hollow victory is a bit unfair on her, the people that set the rules of the classifications for entry know a lot more about this than me and she meets that so seems fair enough to me.
...

She won the C 5 pursuit - which means everybody who she competed against has the same kind of disability. However much you think her disability affects her speed is irrelevant because they're all on a level playing field. She used to be a swimmer and she won gold at that as well - it's a massive disability for swimming but I still think it's going to be pretty important for steering and stability for the bike fwiw

The other way of taking into account the different classifications of disability is like they do in swimming which is people score points depending on how well they do compared to how people have done in their classification. Which balances up the field when people from different classifications compete at the same time - but spoils the sporting spectacle as effectively they're all doing an individual time trial as opposed to really competing against each other.