Paralympics 2012 Discussion Thread

cabanatuan

jealous u lot got tickets. ahh well. nevermind. roll on rio lol

Flipper

I agree, I was there last night as well and the atmosphere and competition was just as good as the Olympic athletics session I saw a few weeks ago.

And the funniest moment of the evening was George Osborne getting booed

loz

Whilst the organisers might have described it as a sell out, and no tickets were available on the ticketing site, though it was almost full last night there nevertheless was still a fair number of empty seats you could see if you looked closely.  These were not the odd one and two here and there were members of a party had not been able to make it, but many blocks of 3,4,5 or more seats scattered all around.

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Can't complain myself though as I was given the tickets for free by a friend on Team GB.
As Flipper says, it was a great night out.

sniffer66

I'd forgotten about that ! I had to explain to my kids who he was and why everyone hated him
"Well kiddies, the man who did his job before him was very naughty and wasted everyones money, and now this man is trying to fix that and is taking all the blame" ;-)

Only slight downer for the evening was that we only had a few GB athletes in the Finals. Would have been good to have had a few more as the reception ours did get was fantastic

loz

To be fair, I didn't get the impression he was being booed in a 'serious' way, as if people genuinely hated him (or his policies).  More of a 'it is our duty to boo any chancellor of the exchequer' sort of way, with everyone around me smilling as they did it.

But I certainly couldn't see anyone applauding him.

I was surprised how in contrast to the Olympics, so many of the Paralympic medals were presented by representatives from the Sponsors, like Sainsbury's.

(I also noted little details how the manufacturer's logo on every single one of the LED lights between each stand had been blacked out with a felt tip pen, because of course no one elses logos besides sponsors are permitted anywhere.   So someone has to go around and black out the logo on 80,000  lights to preserve that )

wbabbington

Not to mention that while disability achievements are being celebrated he is trying to take away the benefits that a lot of disabled people benefit from.

But back OT, am very jealous of everyone that has gone to the Olympic park it looks amazing. Must be a great atmosphere, i would imagine very friendly. Would loved to have gone but just couldn't get anything arranged.

Greg Hook

Can't get over how shocking the main Channel 4 coverage is. It's been said before, but after a few days I'm never surprised at how rubbish they can be.

Tonight for example, Ellie Simmonds had just got her third medal and before the commentator had even finished what he was saying it cut straight to an advert. Really shocking. They had only just finished the race within seconds.

Fortunately I was able to switch over to the Swimming on the 1st extra channel to continue seeing the celebrations.

sniffer66

It was incredibly friendly and a great family atmosphere. We saw many disabled spectators and a few GB paralympians were out and about signing autographs

Also, we wanted to give a special mention to the volunteers as well. They were unfailingly polite, friendly, full of banter and excellent with the kids. They really made the atmosphere as you walked around the park

gamingboy

Has to be said though we encountered a few rotten apple volunteers. I thought it was just us, but heard someone else mention it. On the whole though a great bunch and really made the atmosphere electric.

dc8900

You're not the only one, while 98% have been utterly fantastic, we encountered a truly awful one in the Olympic Stadium, amazed at how rude he was to all the spectators in his block

Also, Theresa May got booed tonight in the stadium as well