Understanding the Paralympics

I'll be honest, I haven't been following the Paralympics very closely - no way near as close as I followed the actual Olympics. Mostly because the coverage is on channel 4 instead of the BBC. Now I love channel 4, its the home of Made in Chelsea, Revenge, Big fat Gypsy Weddings and trashy documentaries ('the girl who became 3 boys' anyone?) however their branching out to cover high profile sport (here horse-racing does not count) is not working for me in the same way. Every time I try to flick onto the paralympics there is always an advert break on. always. I never thought I'd be saying this but I miss the bbc..! Even Gary Linikar and Ian Thorpe's awkward on screen chemistry, never being able to tell apart Clare Balding and Sue Barker (are you sure they are not the same person) and that annoying blonde women who tried mountain biking and immediately fell off head first over the smallest rock. 

Having said this, I have managed to catch a few fleeting glimpses of sport in between the advert breaks. On the whole I've found the presenters pretty bland and uninteresting -there has been nothing to get me excited or especially draw me in (e.g. no jazzy menswear being worn by Ian Thorpe) The only redeeming fact is channel 4 have spiced up the evening recap of the days sport (The Last Leg) by making it into a sort of comedy panel show. Thats right, do what you do best channel 4. Think 8 out of 10 cats mashed with 10 o'clock live but about the paraylmpics. Clearly the best way to promote disabled sport is to have a load of comedians mocking the athletes. To be fair though it has a very warm upbeat vibe. The Show is hosted by Australian Adam Hills who himself only has 1 leg. This means there are also a lot of Australian jokes and an Ashes style score board between the two countries. The shows catchphrase "Is it Okay..?" encourages guests and viewers to cross the 'politically correct' boundaries and ask the questions they don't know are acceptable though it is always a bit risky using comedian such as Jimmy car who can be known to take things too far. In its own way its changing public perception of disability and its, well, really funny.

So being the Paralympics we get a load of fun new sports to watch and try to understand. Wheelchair basketball for example. It seems just as rubbish a sport as normal basketball. Wheelchair rugby on the other hand is epic. Also known as "Murder-ball" it was invented as a game for athletes too disabled to play wheelchair basketball. Its become, in my opinion, the much better sport though. Originally I did not know what to expect with this game. Judging from the name wheelchair Rugby I had expected to see wheelchairs getting into scrums and stuff - like when Artie from Glee decided to join his school's American Football team. Although the game has no scrums there is plently of bashing into each other and knocking each other down. Its so exciting and as someone who hates Rugby I have to say this game is so much better than the regular version. It has to be the best paralympic sport.

Another of my favourites is sitting volley ball. I think this should become a sport played by everyone because it is perfect for couch potatoes like me. I remember some school PE lessons where me and my friends were so unbelievably lazy we tried to play badminton sitting down. If only we could have played sitting volleyball. Seriously this is a game that should be played in girls PE lessons. The blind Football was also interesting. I was pretty amazed that they don't spend the whole match just crashing into each other. The goal celebrations were great, like one guy I saw did a cartwheel and everything. I've found, generally, that the paralympions are pretty cool. Has anyone else noticed that how many have got awesome dyed hair like Wheelchair rugby player David Anthony or boccia player David Smith and wheelchair athlete Hannah Cockroft.

 The athletes compete in different classes in their sports e.g. T44 or S14. It is hard though to understand why people with completely different disabilities compete against each other in the same class. The swimming is a good example of this. In one race you can have athletes with 2 arms, 1 arm and no arms. (How someone can swim with no arms I have no idea, its amazing.) Our good friends at channel 4 have helpfully tried to explain this with their guide LEXI. As much fun as the mutli-coloured figures are, they don't really help explain why certain disabilities are not at an advantage or disadvantage compared to others in their class. Also It has got to the the only time when people complain about athletes being not disabled enough. For example cyclist Sarah Storey has been doing amazing well (shes's got like 3 gold medals so far) however her disability is that she was born without a functioning hand. Considering in cycling they never actually use their hands - like they rest their elbows on the handle bars to be more streamline - you have to wonder how much her disability affects her performance compared to an able-bodied athlete.

Despite this, its still great that the Paralympics is about the only time when disability is in the public eye for positive reasons. The stories that you hear about are really amazing: for example the guy (Alex Zanardi), who was a F1 driver but got in a really bad accident losing his legs,was at the paralympics winning gold in the hand cycling. Being such a massive girl I spend a large amount of time crying to myself during the emotional stories and winning moments. Personal highlights for me were watching Jonnie Peacock winning the 100m, Ellie Simmonds winning her gold medals in the swimming and when that woman fell over while measuring the shotput - haha. The Paralympics is never going to be a good as the oylmpics (soz) but it is still very entertaining and.I would have watched a lot more, but like I said, Channel 4 sucks.