Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Paralympics

#1

Just finished watching the opening ceremony for the paralympics. What a fantastic production and a wonderful storyline and message. I don’t know about the US but over here there has been little coverage given to the paras in past years. It is covered by ABC, which is not your commercial network but our national government broadcaster, which incidentally always has the best programming of any network here by far. They seem to be going to give it a good airing.

I am so glad that at last the recognition is coming to this movement - it carries a message of not only promoting the cause of the disabled but of everybody having more awareness and consideration for those around. What an inspirational sight to see so many folk with disabilities showing the world such a happy, positive attitude.
As my dad used to quote: “I wore no shoes and I complained, until I met a man who had no feet.” They rock! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

#2

That’s awesome ozzy,
Here in the U.S. we have the Special Olympics. My wife and I have been around the bowling alley when they have events there, and it’s a great time. That reminds me, my wife and I need to remember to contact them to volunteer to help with those events. We helped out while we were there and it was great.
In a related note, a friend of ours, Shawn Beam, rolled the first sanctioned 300 game by a person in a wheelchair a few months back. As he got into the last frame, everyone in the center had stopped what they were doing and were watching him. We took some pictures of him bowling and another guy is going to make a big wall display from one of the shots. He originally said he hoped to have it up about now. BTW, Shawn bowls in an league open to anyone and (obviously) does quite well.
Here’s a picture of him (not taken during the 300… that would have been a bit distracting :slight_smile:)
[attachment=0]ShawnSmall.jpg[/attachment]

#3

Thanks for the post Ozzy,
I just sent an email to volunteer to help with the Special Olympics here.
It was just the kind of reminder I needed.

#4

I just heard the commentators saying that the US doesn’t broadcast the Paralympics - is that correct? They have a HUGE team there and the highest overall medal count for past Paras (over 1000). Thanks to the ABC coverage here there has been a huge growth in awareness in Oz, and rightly so.

#5

I just went and looked it up. If what I read was correct, it looks like NBC Sports Network will show 4 one hour highlight shows on Sept. 5, 6, 7, and 11 and a 90 minute show on the 16th. It looks like the bulk of the coverage will be on youtube/USparalympics with 10 daily highlights videos. This is reportedly the highest amount coverage ever in the US.
So it looks like there is not a great amount of coverage here. You would think with all the hundreds of channels being piped into the typical home, it would be covered better.

#6

BTW Mike - forgot to say, good on you mate!

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I just sent an email to volunteer to help with the Special Olympics here.

— End quote

I live out in the bush so not a lot I can do from here - apart from travel to Canberra weekly to help out the other geriatric musicians there by playing with them :laughing: OK, some of them are under 60 …

Have sometimes helped out with a friend who does some entertaining in homes as well. Would like to do more of that but can’t guarantee when I can get in to Canberra, lots of things go wrong to thwart the best laid plans: car problems, trees on roads etc etc.

#7

— Begin quote from ____

Have sometimes helped out with a friend who does some entertaining in homes as well.

— End quote

That was retirement homes…

#8

Hey Mike - took a leaf out of your book and looked up the TV program. In Australia we have 5 free to air networks. One of those is ABC, the government funded main non-commercial player.
ABC 1 is broadcasting 4 1/2 hours per day live from 4am + 1 hr of highlights in the evening. ABC 2 is broadcasting 4 1/2 hours per day from 7.30 pm. Different commentators and often different content. They are doing that every day of the Paralympics. They are including a lot of live interviews with athletes (not just trackside) about what they are doing, what’s happening, the background of each sport. Also good explanations of how the gradings work for different disabilities.
Brilliant! In fact so far it is leaving the commercial coverage of the Olympics for dead. But that’s the quality product we expect from the ABC here.

In fact I think your bowling mate would be stuck to the tv if he was here, and rapt to see the coverage they get.

#9

That’s great you all have that kind of coverage. Maybe we’ll catch up some day. That would be much preferable to the typical scripted “reality” shows that seem to be on half the channels at any given time.