Why are the Paralympics not as popular as the Olympics?

Over a week into the 2012 Paralympic Games in London and already, there has been some outstanding performances from the athletes. As it stands, ParalympicsGB are currently second in the medal table with 32 golds, 39 silvers and 41 bronzes. The majority of the British public were looking forward to the Games after the success of Team GB in the Olympics a few weeks ago. Record ticket sales ensured that this would be most spectated Paralympics in history. But the big question that still looms, is why are the Paralympics not as popular as the Olympics?

Firstly, the Paralympics do not receive a great deal of media coverage compared to the Olympics. This year saw two different channels covering the two events, the BBC for the Olympics and Channel 4 for the Paralympics. In previous Paralympic Games, the BBC had TV rights for the Games but they did not show the amount of coverage as they did for the Olympics. For Beijing 2008, the BBC provided live coverage of the Olympics, during the day for the duration of the Games from early in the morning until late at night. For the Paralympics, that was a different story.

BBC TV Coverage between the 2008 Olympics and Paralympics: 

Olympics 2008

The Olympics 8-24 August                                                

Live coverage on BBCi                                                     

2.00am-6.00pm                                                                 

1.50-6.00am BBC One/BBC HD

(start times vary)

Olympic Breakfast: 6.00-9.00am BBC One/BBC HD

9.00am-noon BBC One/BBC HD

12.00-12.45pm BBC Two/BBC HD

12.45-5.15pm BBC One/BBC HD

5.15-6.00pm BBC Two/BBC HD

Games Today: 7.00-8.00pm BBC One/BBC HD

Paralympics 2008  

10am-4pm: Live coverage on BBCi

Monday-Friday: 7pm-8pm on BBC2

Saturday-Sunday: 12.50pm-4.30pm on BBC2 

Source: BBC Press Office, 2008. 


The coverage of the 2008 Paralympics wasn't shown enough for those viewers who wanted to watch the Games despite ParalympicsGB's success in Beijing, winning 102 medals overall. Channel 4 won the bid to provide TV coverage of the 2012 Paralympics where they said they would provide up to 150 hours including three extra channels for other events. So far, the viewing figures have been pretty impressive where a record 6.3 million people watched Briton Jonnie Peacock win gold in the T44 Men's 100m on Thursday evening. On the same night, 5.5 million viewers tuned in to watch David Weir claim his third gold of the Games on what was a memorable night for ParalympicsGB. With the coverage that Channel 4 has provided so far, this could be the start of bringing more disabled sport to many television sets across the world.

Jonnie Peacock celebrates his victory
in the T44 100m final

The names of most of the athletes that take part in the Paralympics are unknown to the majority of the general public. Although with the help of the Games, they can be introduced to the athletes themselves. Many people will know the 'Blade Runner' Oscar Pistorius from South Africa, who made history at the Olympics by becoming the first Paralympian to take part in the Olympic Games last month . There are a few British Paralympians who the public will remember, for instance Barroness Tanni Grey-Thompson who won 11 gold medals at the Paralympics between 1992 and 2004. Fellow wheelchair racers David Weir and Shelly Woods, are also very popular British Paralympians for their success along with cyclist, Sarah Storey. With the Games being held in London this year, it will give Britons across the country the chance to know more about them and their specific events. There are rarely any advertising campaigns featuring any of the Paralymipans apart from the build-up to the Games on Channel 4. Compared to the Olympics, the general public have seen adverts featuring athletes such as Jessica Ennis and Mark Cavendish on various adverts on products, television and billboards alike.

The 'Blade Runner': Oscar Pistorius

With every Paralympic event, there are various classifications which define the disabilities of the athletes. It is a handful to remember from the top of your head however Channel 4 have provided a guide to help people with the different classifications. It's called LEXI which you can find more information at: http://lexi.channel4.com/. It does confuse a lot of people, although the letters are easy to figure out. A few examples include T for track, F for field and C for cycling. The numbers represent the different disabilities for example, Ellie Simmonds takes part in the S6 category where swimmers with moderate co-ordination on one side, severe impairment affecting the lower trunk and legs, those with dwarfism (like Ellie) or have the loss of limbs. The LEXI guide will only improve the knowledge of the classifications to the general public, especially to the younger generation and upcoming Paralympic fans.

Ellie Simmonds

Now that the question has been discussed, what can be done to promote the Paralympics and disability sport as a whole? More media coverage on disability sport for a start as there are hardly any coverage of it apart from the Paralympic Games. This will get more people with disabilities into sport where there are currently one in 15 disabled adults who play sport on a regular basis compared to one in six of the overall population, according to Sport England. They have recently received funding of £2.6 million to try and increase sport participation for people with disabilities. There are plenty of role models for them to look up to such as Ellie Simmonds, who won two gold medals at the 2008 Paralympics at the age of 13. Despite their disabilities, nothing has been able to stop the athletes from competing in sport which can also improve sports participation. The ticket sales at the Paralympics so far has been phenomenal with over two million tickets sold to the public to make these Games the most spectated Paralympics in history. More of the public should give watching the Paralympics a chance, which can also help change the perception of disability. LOCOG reported that 205 World Records have been broken so far with three days to go of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Finally, I'll finish off with a quote from Oscar Pistorius:

"You're not disabled by the disabilities you have, you are able by the abilities you have."

My Olympic Adventure (31/07/2012)

The day finally arrived where I would take the opportunity to travel to the Olympic Park in Stratford to watch the Swimming heats. I won a pair of tickets through The National Lottery's Twitter account where they asked a question to all of their followers and they answer the question including #Instants. When I was notified that I had won the tickets, I was really happy that I would get the once in a lifetime opportunity to go to the Olympic Games in my home country.

It was an early start for me, 4:10am to be precise, however I was really excited to be going to my first ever Olympics event. A short taxi ride to the train station soon followed before boarding my 5:15am train. After changing at Basingstoke, I arrived at London Waterloo at 6:50am and met my friend Mike who I met from Twitter earlier this year at a Southampton football match. As expected, London was busy but not as busy as you would think. After the 15-20 minute tube journey to Stratford, the excitement was beginning to kick in with hundreds of people exiting the station to make their way towards the Olympic Park on which was a rainy day in the capital.

The airport security was a funny experience where I had to drink the whole bottle of water that I had with me because of  the possibility of that people will conceal 'liquid bombs'. I was saying to Mike, "Where are the "chug, chug" chants when you need them?" and the army troops joined in with the laughter which was good to see. Then we made the walk to the Olympic Park and seeing the signs towards it made it feel very surreal to be one of the many spectators to be flooding in to watch one of the many sports on offer.

As I entered the Olympic Park, my first reaction was, "Wow!" The Olympic Stadium, costing almost half a billion pounds, was an amazing sight to see despite my initial reaction to when LOCOG released details of the stadium to which I thought wasn't good to look at. Next to the Olympic Stadium was the Orbit which is the tallest art structure in the UK offering amazing views of the Olympic Park. Unfortunately, Mike and I didn't get a chance to go inside the red-coloured spiral designed structure however it certainly looks astonishing from the outside.

After taking in the scenary, Mike and I made our way towards the Aquatics Centre where we were forced to wait for around 15 minutes before going through to have our tickets checked. The volunteers were on form to try and get everybody excited for the swimming heats by asking the visitors to take part in Mexican waves however it was expected that not everybody took part. After our tickets were scanned, we were welcomed by a big set of Olympic rings on a similar hill to the one that was used in the Opening Ceremony. We made our way up the steps into the building, with the excitement continuing to build and Mike and I opened the doors to the block that we would be sitting in and we saw the swimming and diving pools where we had big grins on our faces. It was an amazing feeling to be inside the impressive Aquatics Centre and when we finally took our seats, the views were simply outstanding.

The action took place 90 minutes later with the Men's 100m Freestyle event kicking off procedures of the morning session. Team GB's Adam Brown took part in Heat 6 where he would come in last place (7th) but despite this, there were some more chances for Team GB's swimmers in the other events. The next event was the Women's 200m Butterfly where there were four heats involved and two Brits would take part. First up was Ellen Gandy who took part in the 100m Butterfly final a few days before however she was the last to finish in 8th place. Back to the 200m, Gandy had a fairly decent swim with the crowd roaring across the Aquatics Centre and she eventually finished in 5th place in Heat 3. Jemma Lowe was the next Brit to take part in Heat 4 where she gave a superb performance finishing in second place behind USA's Kathleen Hersey with a time of 2:07.64. The result meant that Lowe qualified for the semi-finals which would take place later on that day.

The third event to take place in the pool was the Men's 200m Breaststroke where there five heats overall with semi-final places up for grabs. Most of the crowd had to wait until Heat 3 for Team GB participation where Michael Jamieson took his place in Lane 2. Jamieson swam very well to take second place with a time of 2:08.98 however he was two tenths of a second off Hungary's Daniel Grurta. Andrew Willis was in Heat 5 for Team GB where the crowd cheered him on to victory in 2:09.33 where he would join Jamieson in the semi-finals.

The final event of the morning was the Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay where we would see two very entertaining heats. In Heat 1, France came out on top finishing with a time of 7:09.18 with Germany, South Africa and Hungary also qualifying for the final of the event. Team GB took their place in Heat 2 where it was a closely fought battle between the eight countries. The atmosphere inside the Aquatics Centre was getting louder as Team GB kept themselves in the top three in their heat and eventually finished third behind the USA and Australia. The morning session came to a close around 11:30am where the screen showed various celebrities and past Olympians including Jonathan Edwards and Gail Emms wishing us a safe journey home. Mike and I reflected on the events we had just seen and both agreed that it was terrific to watch as we entered our way out of the Aquatics Centre.

After a spot of lunch which was REALLY overpriced, we had a walk around the Olympic Park taking in more of the scenery and the opportunity to take a few more pictures. We went to the hill where fans can sit to watch other events on the big screen where on the occasion, it was showjumping. A quick trip into the official shop where I purchased a Spain flag because I'm half Spanish and then Mike and I made the decision to head out of the Olympic Park to go home. It was a lot busier in the afternoon than this morning however the tube from Stratford to Waterloo was once again showing no trouble with the amount of passengers that the Underground will take to and from the Olympic Games. Mike and I spoke to a couple of Canadian women on the tube where Mr Bean was the popular topic and one of the women told us that her daughter loves the character which was great to hear.

After saying my farewells to Mike, I went off to find my train which I did with ease and finally got home around 3:30pm where I had the chance to reflect on a day that I will never, ever forget at London 2012. I would like to take the opportunity to thank The National Lottery as without their competition in giving me the opportunity of winning the tickets, I probably would have never got the opportunity to go so a big thank you to them!

London 2012 Is Just Around The Corner!

After seven years of waiting, London will be the centre of attention of the entire world tomorrow evening. With only one day to go, the UK is full of Olympic fever as the opening ceremony takes place to confirm the opening of the world's biggest sporting event. London will become the first city to host the Games on three different occasions (1908, 1948 and 2012) where the Prime Minister and organizers firmly believe that the capital can host the best Olympics of all time. It's a tough ask after the event that Beijing delivered four years ago however I'm confident London can host a great Olympics. Of course, there has been controversies over the size of the budget, security and probable strikes but despite this, London has a great opportunity to show the world what they can do for themselves and the UK.

London prepares to welcome the world

The football tournament has grabbed the attention of many people already having kicked-off on Wednesday. It was a mixed start for Team GB where the women's secured a 1-0 victory over New Zealand in Cardiff thanks Steph Houghton's terrific free-kick however the men had to settle for a 1-1 draw against Senegal in Manchester. Where the rest of the British athletes are concerned, they have every right to be optimistic coming into the Olympics with many of them hoping to achieve a medal. There will be plenty of coverage of the 36 sports so there is no reason to not watch any of the action unless you're not a sports fan of course! 

THE CENTREPIECE: The Olympic Stadium

I for one cannot wait for the Olympics to start and I hope we can all get behind Team GB to achieve plenty of medals! The opening ceremony will be a great masterpiece directed by Danny Boyle where glimpses of the event have been shown on the news including kids jumping on beds and plenty of dance routines. 

Let's hope for a great Olympics! Good luck London!

Team GB Football Squad Is Announced

Team GB football Head Coach Stuart Pearce confirmed his final 18-man squad for the London 2012 Olympic Games yesterday. Known as 'Psycho' during his playing career, Pearce insisted that he would only choose the players on merit and form however he had to take in the fact that the Scottish and Northern Irish FA's opposed for their players to be selected due to their worries that their statuses would be affected. This is the first time that Great Britain will have a football team involved at the Olympics since 1960 in Rome.

Team GB Head Coach Stuart Pearce

The squad contains 13 Englishmen and five from Wales including Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs. He is one of the three over age players along with Welsh striker Craig Bellamy and Manchester City right-back Micah Richards who turned his back on the England stand-by list for Euro 2012. The majority of the squad has been involved in the England under-21 fold under Pearce including the likes of Danny Rose and Daniel Sturridge who was also on stand-by for England. Swansea City are the most represented club in the Team GB squad with Scott Sinclair, Joe Allen and Neil Taylor all receiving the call to play at the world's biggest sporting event. 

England prospect Tom Cleverley spent the most of last season on the sidelines however he stated in March that his aim was to play at London 2012. “Throughout my career, I want to experience many things”, said the 22-year-old. “The Olympics would be a fantastic part of it.” Another highly-rated talent who has been selected for Team GB is Birmingham goalkeeper Jack Butland who at 19, was called up to the England Euro 2012 squad to replace the injured John Ruddy. Butland had two successful loan spells at League Two side Cheltenham Town last season where he kept 11 clean sheets in 24 appearances. Promising left-back Ryan Bertrand has also been selected in the squad as the Chelsea defender made his first start for the club in their Champions League final success over Bayern Munich in May. He expressed his delight by saying: "My friends and family are really happy and proud. To go out and gain more experience and be part of the Olympics team to represent Great Britain will be fantastic for me as an individual."

The main talking point in the past week amongst the media has been the omission of former England captain David Beckham. Pearce firmly stated that he left out the 37-year-old primarily for footballing reasons however there has been mixed opinions between the media and fans as Beckham has been involved in the bid for the Games from the very beginning. In my opinion, it would have capped off a truly wonderful career for Beckham if he had the opportunity to play at the Olympic Games in the place of his birth however Pearce has disrespected the LA Galaxy midfielder enormously. I understand that the squad is chosen on merit however in Beckham's case he has given his all since joining the MLS side in 2007 where he won the MLS Cup last season. Born in Leytonstone, Beckham has recently been awarded a knighthood for his services to sport which is well-deserved after applying his trade at Manchester United and Real Madrid. He travelled with the bidding committee to Singapore when London won the bid to stage the 2012 Olympics hailing on an "incredible victory". I feel that Beckham should be involved in the Great Britain football team set-up for support and inspiration as that is what he deserves after playing a major part in bringing the games to London.

David Beckham holding the Olympic torch 
in Cornwall last month

Full Team GB squad:

Goalkeepers: Jason Steele (Middlesbrough), Jack Butland (Birmingham). 


Defenders: Ryan Bertrand (Chelsea), Steven Caulker (Tottenham), Craig Dawson (West Brom) James Tomkins (West Ham), Neil Taylor (Swansea), Micah Richards (Manchester City). 


Midfielders: Joe Allen (Swansea), Jack Cork (Southampton), Danny Rose (Tottenham), Aaron Ramsey (Arsenal), Scott Sinclair (Swansea), Tom Cleverley (Manchester United), Ryan Giggs (Manchester United).


Strikers: Craig Bellamy (Liverpool), Marvin Sordell (Bolton), Daniel Sturridge (Chelsea).