The Games Of The 30th Olympiad

And I'm spoiling for a fight;bring it bitch.

take it out on Kingpin!

To be honest; I tend to only watch the swimming and track and field events during the Paralympic Games. Same with the Olympics.; swimming, gymnastics and track and field; the rest I watch by accidant. Most of the time you get to see a sport you never cared for and suddenly; you're hooked:P I think it has a lot to do with the top-commentators from the BBC

Just saw some NBC sportscoverage. Because of the time-difference, they broadcasted the events on Prime time. And even though they made it look "live"; most of their reports were heavily edited and fluffed up with 'soap-opera-movie-script-bullshit. Very bad journalism and extremely insulting towards non-US-athletes. You should've heard the commentary during the gymnastics event. the Russians were branded "coldhearted divas" who show bad sportsmanship. Over at the BBC; the russians were "understandably disappointed with themselves" big difference. People who only watch gymnastics during the games get a completely distorted view and very little info about the sport. The BBC was so informative whereas NBC needs to romanticize and dramatize everything.I now understand why Jesse dislikes "the hype" and "worship" of athletes (esp. during the Games); it's american television!

you wouldn't even think the Paralympics are happening with the TV coverage - we're covering it more here on the Garden with our torch banner! not that people are prejudiced against physically disabled people or anything. Still, it could be worse; if were for people with mental disabiltiies they'd just have lined them up and shot them all

It hasn't begun, yet:P Coming weekend.

it started yesterday, didn't it?!

I thought coming weekend?

i checked: 29th of august.

Yeah the opening ceremony is on tv on Wednesay

Watched the Paralympic opening ceremony tonight and I have a ticket to go to the Olympic Park on Tuesday night!

Didn't manage to get Olympic ticket so really pleased I got one for the Paralympics. It is just a Park entrance ticket but at least I get to go round and see the venues and soak up the atmosphere :-)

Ugh. I'm so jealous, Stevie!Will you be taking Nicky with you? Maybe he can tell the paralympic athletes what he thinks, to their face:P
The paralympic ceremony was better than the olympic one.

Just heard that two brits already broke world-records! Apparently; this is the biggest Paralympic Games. 164 nations...more than 4000 athletes....and I can't see all of the action. Prolly over on BBC3-which i don't have Dutch tv will probably focus on the wheelchar-tennis. Edith van Dijk has dominated that sport since...well since ever.

Loved that british guy in the pool.

no I'm not going!

good. we would'nt want your negativity to infect the athletes:P

yaaay. German channels are showing the Games! watching the swimming. It is quite different. Different categories of disabillity means different rules. In some categories it's about the first one to finish; wins.
But some categories are under-represented. so they put these athletes together in one race. and whomever gets closest to the world-record in their own category, wins. Luckily that doesn't happen very often-would be too difficult to keep track of things.

woo. those wheelchair-table tennisplayers don't fuck about. One guy flipped over on his wheelchair trying to get to the ball and his opponent did the whole: "Come ooooooon" thing. want to see the track &field-events with that south African dude who also competed at the olympics. oscar pistorius. and the wheelchair-races. It's amazing how much power they generate from their shoulders

no I wouldn't want m sympathy for the mentally impaired to infect the spoilt, coddled physically disabled athletes who have people simpering over them every day of their lives

Wow. I really thought you would come up with something new. all jokes aside; people don't watch out of sympathy; it's still sports.And i like it. Hence me posting in this thread. You, on the other hand, are still being a bitter cunt when you post in this thread and have nothing positive to add.
If you don't like it; fine. and I know that you're probably joking and that i'm probably overreacting and taking the bait and I'm sure you don't care. but i really object to your view on anything you don't like. Not because it's concerning disabled people or, sports.but because of your spewing pure bile all over it and then trivializing other peoples' achievements, or things they find interesting. Maybe i should do the same in in your "publishing"-thread;-)

I am bitter of behalf of the mentally impaired and proud of it!

Oi vey. you're a whiner. There are mentally impaired competing in Paralympics AND Olympics! They're not bitter!
I give up, you little imp.

well I didn't know that; as usual, the physically disabled hog all of that limelight as well

What is this? Is this held after the regular Olympics, was there one in China? What a shame there is like zero coverage over here

yah after; and zero coverage because on the face of it people don't like the disabled, especially the mentally disabled!

whine, whine, whine....

no, facts! you're practically sanctioning abuse and calling it whining! you want to compare the lives of a physically disabled person with everyone simpering over them and then the abused life of your average mentally disabled person and get back to me!

Don't talk to me about mental illness,sweety; You're still a whiner. Those athletes, Paralympic or,Olympic-don't whine.They haven't got the time. They go after a goal. The paralympics aren't about disability; It's about the ABILITY to perform at the highest level in your field.It's another form of sport. Nothing more.

if you watched the opening ceremony for the paralympics and seen the atheletes coming in it is quite clear many of them have mental disabilities.



oh, and i hardley think the uk woman in the sit down volley ball feels pampered. she not only sat next to one of the suicide bombers on 7th july and lost both her legs but she and her team mates had to fight to be classified as a team and were only allowed to compete in march

Good argument, wrong thread Pet.

You can't piss on this parade!!!!! You seem to agree that the disabled are often discriminated against, especially mentally disabled, so surely this having a games business is a positive step and is at least putting disabled people on tv which hardly ever happens. It's also getting voices heard and raising awareness of what they face, for example travelling to the games by public transport - hardly any tube stations have disabled access. I know this because it was on the news because of the games.

I agree that disabled people have a tough time of it generally but when you start compairing afflictions and saying one is better than another because they get more sympathy it's not going to sit well with people. I think what you're saying is that physical impairments are more visible than mental illness and that's why they get more sympathy. Doesn't work with blind and deaf people though. And getting sympathy only goes so far in making a person feel better, you may have more support available but going from a healthy person to one who can't walk or do what they used to in life would often lead to some form of mental illness, ie depression.

But that aside I know there is a massive stigma regarding mental illness still, some people are ashamed to have mental illness because of others reactions, I'm sure some delay getting help because of this, there's a lot of false information and fear about certain conditions, especially psychotic illnesses. I've seen two people at work this week who are massively damaged mentally and haven't sought help until they ended up convicted of an offence. I had a bloke in tears today telling me his story and how he never talks about it (he certainly made up for it today!) Men especially in the north of england still feel they can't show what they perceive as weakness, it just doesn't happen. And now I've drifted off topic a bit but I think I've made my point!