Amazing British achievement at the Paralympics

September 17th, 2008

There was a lot of TV and press coverage for the Beijing Olympics and Britain did fantastically well finishing overall in fourth place with 19 Gold medals, 13 Silver and 15 Bronze.

We did brilliantly in the velodrome with the British cyclists missing out on only 3 of the 10 Gold medals up for grabs. We did so well in fact that other countries are now looking at Britain for inspiration. According to an article in The Times, the Germans described themselves as a ‘Mickey Mouse’ operation in comparison.

I found it disappointing that there wasn’t very much coverage of the Paralympics. I think that people who compete at such a high level with a disability deserve more coverage. I was amazed today to see that we have finished second in the medal table for the Beijing Paralympics with 42 Golds, 29 Silvers and 31 Bronze. One British competitor, Dave Roberts, broke the world record in his 400m freestyle final and won his third Gold medal of the games, his 10th Paralympic title. Fantastic!

I really hope that all our British winners in both the Olympics and the Paralympics and recognised for their achievements.

I also hope that we can host the 2012 games with the same flair, organisation and flamboyance that we saw in Beijing. Unfortunately we are at a slight disadvantage with four of the top Olympic sponsors already pulling out. Kodak have pulled out despite being sponsors since 1896, a Canadian financial services company called Manulife have also pulled out, as have computer group Lenovo. Johnson & Johnson are also expected to cut it’s spend.

Hopefully Boris Johnson and his team will be able to find more big sponsors otherwise our 2012 Olympics may be slightly less dramatic.

Entry Filed under: Sport