Ian Kington/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesMembers of the United States delegation at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games in London.The wheelchair racer Joshua George will be competing in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London and writing for the 2012 London blog.
LONDON — The roar of the crowd as the British contingent entered the track on Wednesday sent shivers down my spine. Eighty thousand people erupted as the athletes wove their way through the brightly colored dancers, showered in camera flashes and always under the watchful eye of Queen Elizabeth II.
We had yet to make it around the track when the crowd cranked up the volume, halting all of my thoughts and conjuring images of homestretch sprints and tearful podiums. The 2012 Paralympics had truly begun.
It was easily the greatest opening ceremony that I have been a part of. With the stadium situated so close to the athletes’ village, the Parade of Nations began there, with each country marching in alphabetical order from across Olympic Park and into the Olympic Stadium, which shimmered like a crown in the crisp, clear night. The 1,200-meter walk took two hours.
I was able to have a brief conversation with a dear friend of mine from Australia as he was on his way back to the village after marching through the stadium (athletes were allowed to march in and leave early so they could take part in the ceremony and still be in bed at a reasonable hour), a full 30 minutes before the United States even entered the stadium.
The wait to get in was worth it, however. The ceremony, narrated by Stephen Hawking and starring Ian McKellen, portrayed a young girl’s intellectual journey through the great thinkers of human history with an unmissable theme of the unshakable fortitude of human spirit and ability regardless of loss of limb or function. There was some questionable music, though, with lyrics mired in metaphor.
Most of you reading this, however, haven’t the foggiest idea what happened during the Paralympic opening ceremony. Unlike in the rest of the developed world, the ceremony was not broadcast in the United States, and it did not make a big splash in major American newspapers. It is a shame, really. The ceremony was incredible, an event that many deemed even better than the opening ceremony for the Olympics.
London is the birthplace of the Paralympics, dating to 1948 when Stoke-Mandeville hosted the first international sporting competition for paraplegics, and the city was immensely excited to bring the Games back home.
This is the largest Paralympics in history, with 4,200 athletes from 164 countries — 2.5 million tickets were sold before the Games began, and the Olympic Stadium is sold out for every session. People around the world will be watch on television and read about it in the papers, except in the United States, that is.
I suppose I cannot complain too much. Those lucky enough to get NBC Sports Network will be rewarded with four one-hour highlight shows in the course of the games, and everybody has the opportunity to log on to paralympic.org and watch the I.P.C. webcast of the Games. But on television, 11 days of competition will be compressed into four hours and capped by a two-hour special on NBC that I bet will harp on the “inspirational stories” in the Games and maybe include a solid 10 minutes of competition.
You see, even more amazing than the fact that Londoners have opened their arms and hearts to the Paralympics is the fact that they are interested in us for our athletic ability, not the fact that we don’t spend every day in our rooms crying about the fact that we can’t walk, or are missing a limb or two. The cabdriver who gave me a ride to the village the other day asked me a stream of questions about what events I would be competing in (the 200 meters, the 400, the 800, the 1,500-meter relay, the 4×400 and the marathon for those keeping track at home), and how somebody trains for such an intense schedule.
Sure, he briefly asked what happened to me, how I ended up in a wheelchair, but he asked in the same manner that someone would ask you what store you bought your dashing new shoes in, and he shrugged it off just as fast, with nary a tinge of pity in his eye.
The Times of London printed a Paralympic collectors edition Thursday commemorating the birth of the Games. An article by Simon Barnes struck on just what Londoners are celebrating with these Games: the amazing athletic abilities of amazing individuals. The bravery that the athletes in these Games show by overcoming adversity to be here, Barnes said, was no more necessary to spend time on than the fact that gymnasts are short and basketball players are tall. It is what it is, so move on and cover the real story, the sport. This is a far cry from the talking heads at NBC announcing to the American viewing public that just watching Oscar Pistorius run in the Olympics made us all winners, what an “inspiration” he is. You know the word they use to describe Oscar over here in London? Fast. Imagine that.
The London Games are on a pace to be the biggest advancement of adapted sports since people in wheelchairs began playing basketball in the 1940s. The coverage on TV has been educational and professionally done. The appreciation of athletic accomplishment is on a par with that of the Olympians who flocked to the city two weeks ago, and Britain is building up its Paralympic stars and hopefuls to the same heights.
The ceremony was an occasion for which spectators paid hundreds of pounds for a ticket to see an event narrated by a man who epitomizes the message that these Games are shouting to the world. It is beyond question that Stephen Hawking has faced more adversity in his lifetime than anyone else could imagine, but when you think about him you think about his amazing work in physics. He is incredible for what he does, not because of what he can’t do.
In London, Paralympians are seen as amazing for their feats on the field, and it could not be more refreshing. I hope that one day the United States decides to join the party.