Our Paralympic Events.

We had a good range of Paralympic tickets. Judo was the first event we saw. It was an impressive introduction to Paralympic sport as the visually impaired competitors, after being led on, didn't hold back. Just a few minutes after walking in we were treated to one match ending less that 12 seconds after starting with an an empahtic 'takedown'. We couldn't help feeling sorry for the athlete whose years of training came to nought after such a short time.

In reality, table tennis is not something many people outside of the table tennis playing community would pay to go and watch. However, watching the careful strategy involved in soundly defeating an opponent confined to a wheel chair was quite incredible, as was watching a woman with no hands and only one leg be narrowly beaten. Having a British athlete competing for a silver medal certainly fired up the capacity crowd at this and all of the events.

The swimming gave spectators a glimpse of Australia's former glory. Jacqueline Frehney won gold in her individual and thrilling 4 x 100 relay swims. We all sang 'Advance Australia Fair' loudly (even Mark) and received positive comments from the crowd around us who also agreed to cheer on Australia if there weren't any GB competitors in the races. A young Australian, Ahmed Kelly who was born in Baghdad with deficient arms & legs and later adopted by Moira Kelly, inspired us all after hauling himself out of the pool, putting on his leg and walking off. Read more about the Kellys. For the last event of the evening, Sally and kids snuck down and joined team members and their families to revel and sing. Somehow, a Paralympic towel fell into Sally's bag . 

The Kelly brothers.

Yay !!!

That evening was yet another chance for British fans to revel in success. Ellie Simmonds, who became the 'face' of the GB paralympics team received one of her medals from the PM. She was one of many athletes who thrilled the packed aquatic centre. 

 Boris was there too !

Murderball was hugely popular with royalty and heads of government as well as mere mortals. 

The Princess Royal. 

The British PM, David Cameron & family.

We were lucky to get tickets for the Australia Vs Sweden match, which Australia won. Reilly Batt, the Australian player we nicknamed 'Batman', was all over the court. His aggressive play meant he spent a great deal of time flat on his back or getting new wheels fitted.

We ended up staying for the remainder of the matches, watching about 7 hours of wheelchair rugby. As the afternoon turned to evening the games became increasingly aggressive and spectacular.

Apart from crashing into each other, the use of blocking and trapping strategies were very effective & used as much as possible by the British team against #9, Sallem, on the French team. Sallem made 'Batman' look hesitant in his play. Sallem really was all over the court.

Team GB revving up the crowds !

On the day of our athletics event members of the Australian team came to the High Commission. We were able to squeeze in an hour at the Hi Comm and were able to hold a complete set of both Olympic and Paralymic medals. We also met several athletes, including medal winners. Among them was dressage athlete Joann Formosa at her first Paralympic event. Joann, who was hospitalised and near death in January this year, caused a major upset by knocking the nine-time gold medallist and 2012 GB gold 'certainty', Lee Peasron, into 2nd place. His loss to Joann was the first time he had been beaten at this level.
Read more about Joann's victory

Is it one of those chocolate ones ?

Joann Formosa.

With Chris and his management partners.

The senior manager of the 2012 Paralympic team was Chris Nunn. More usually known to us as a parent at Miles Franklin, the kids primary school in Canberra, as well as running the pool in Canberra where the kids trained for many years up until we left for London. Chris, a former decathlete, was head coach of the Australian Institute of Sport Athletics programme. After several failed attempts we were really pleased to catch up with him too.

Just as the speeches started we had to race off from the Hi Comm to the Olympic stadium where we saw a wide variety of events and medal ceremonies. Amongst them were Oscar Pistorius qualifying for the finals he won gold in the next day as well as the Irish runner Jason Smyth's 200 metre gold medal race. We saw wheelchair races, guided running, discus, hammer throws and Australia's Todd Hodgetts win gold in the shotput. The use of remote control scale model mini coopers to retrieve the discus was a great laugh.

Jason Smyth.

 

Yet again the weather gods smiled on London for most of the Paralympics giving us not only good weather but, towards the end, some positively HOT sunny days with the kids being told to put sunscreen on. Our last event was wheelchair tennis and Julian, the son of Mark's former landlady (from 1991), joined us. He was made an honorary Australian for the day (later described as 'child abuse' by our English neighbours Helen and James!).

Sally and the kids were welcomed to Olympic Park with some free hugs from yet more excited volunteers. During their day they not only saw the tennis matches but were also lucky enough to see GB paralympic cyclist Jody Cundy who won bronze but famously spat the dummy when he was disqualified in another race. "Mixed" was his answer in response to diplomatic Sally's question about what feelings he had about the games. They also saw the gold medal winning German women's basketball team who warmly received their gracious forgiveness for defeating Australia. 

A much happier Jody Cundy.

Hugs !

The German women's basketball team. 

There has been a lot of discussion in the media about the possible lasting economic and social effects of the games. There has certainly been a very positive feeling about the place while both games were on. Seeing the skill and courage of all the athletes has led to discussion at home about determination, abilities and expectations. We can only hope that the Paralympians in particular are able to go home with a new found sense of inclusion and respect from the wider community. They certainly deserve it.

The next post about the things we did in the holidays in particular skydiving, a few tonnes of feathers and a touch of Rio in London will be up soon and will be. 

Paralympics Opening Ceremony.

Having had tickets for the closing of the Olympics, we were very much looking forward to attending the opening of the Paralympics. We are lucky to have known one of the Australian Paralympians, Louise Ellery, since before her first Paralympics in Athens. Sally & the kids met her when her weekly training sessions coincided with the kids' swimming lessons in Canberra. Louise and her mum and Sally and the kids (then 5 & 3) were usually the last out of the changing rooms and would end up going for hot chocolates afterwards. Mark later met Louise when she came to talk about the accident that injured her and her Paralympic goals to students at the school where he taught.

In the lead up to 2012 and the Paralympics, Aisha had done some school and Girl Guide projects about Louise and become Face Book friends with her. The kids were thrilled to be able to spot Louise as the Australian team entered the stadium. 

Louise Ellery (seated) waves the flag.

Not surprisingly the greatest welcome was for the British team, which came in last. 

The Kangaroo came with us again and brought a friend along with him - 'Pig' who travels with world with friends from Sally's work. The Roo was warmly welcomed and Pig was very pleased to add the Paralympics to her impressive list of travels (it's a long story!). Having heard endless "Hope he has a ticket" and "A kangaroo!! Are you from Australia?!!" comments, we ended up telling people that the Roo was actually a Canadian jumping squirrel.  A few actually believed us, briefly. 

Roo gives pig a hand.

The ceremony was great and we felt it was  better in fact, as well as being a little more comprehensible, than the Olympics opening we had watched on TV.  Having Steven Hawkings lead off was an inspired and inspiring choice and gave a clear theme to the evening.  Again we had pretty good tickets for this ceremony with our seats closer to the action but about a third of the price of the Olympic tickets.  

The athletes' parade was shorter than for the Olympics because fewer countries and athletes were involved. It did still  take a long time though and we marvelled at how the 'games maker' volunteers kept up their dancing/waving routines the entire time! 

By comparison to their Olympic colleagues, the Paralympic athletes were far more colourful with traditional costumes, or variations of them, worn instead of uniforms.  As well as that it was moving to see the quite small teams that some countries sent - notably for us Timor Leste, Syria and Palestine. 

Mexico's team in multi-coloured ponchos

Pink Shorts for men. Yay !

Palestine.

Syria.

Timor Leste.

Naturally we showed our true allegiances.

At the end of the night.

We did stand dutifully though and sang 'God save the Queen' - especially as she was there.

Perhaps the most amazing part of the evening was the 'unveiling' of the inflatable statue of Alison Lapper which appeared in seconds seemingly out of nowhere. The statue itself was a stark reminder of the reality of the games that lay ahead. Click here to find out more about the real Alison Lapper.

Although the ceremony started earlier than the Olympic opening it ran late. We ended up getting home at around 2:30. Again !

The next post will go through some of the highlights of the events we went to.  

Thanks for reading our blog !