2008 Summer Paralympics

2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Sports events

XIII Paralympic Games
"Sky, Earth, and Human Beings", emblem of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games
Host city	Beijing, China
Nations participating	148
Athletes participating	over 4,200
Events	20 sports
Opening ceremony	6 September
Closing ceremony	17 September
Officially opened by	President Hu Jintao
Stadium	Beijing National Stadium

The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games, the thirteenth Paralympics, is being held in Beijing, China from 6 September to 17 September 2008. Mainland China is expected to field the most athletes. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events will be held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao.

Over 4,200 athletes from 148 countries are expected to take part. This will be the largest ever number of nations at the Paralympics (twelve more than in Athens), and several countries will be competing for the first time. The slogan for the 2008 Paralympics is the same as the 2008 Summer Olympics, "One World, One Dream" ( simplified Chinese: 同一个世界 同一个梦想; traditional Chinese: 同一個世界 同一個夢想).

Chinese athletes earned 89 gold, 70 silver, and 52 bronze medals, topping the medal table in all categories and setting a new record for the largest haul at a non-boycotted Games..

International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Philip Craven declared the Games "the greatest Paralympic Games ever."

Venues

2008 Summer Paralympics
Torch relay Opening ceremony ( flag bearers) Medal table Events Closing ceremony Highlights
IPC · BOCOG

Nineteen competition venues—seventeen in Beijing, one in Hong Kong, and one in Qingdao—have been selected for the 2008 Summer Paralympics.

1. Beijing National Stadium (Birds Nest)
2. Beijing National Aquatics Centre (Water Cube)
3. Beijing National Indoor Stadium (Fan)
4. Fencing Gymnasium of Olympic Green Convention Centre
5. Olympic Green Archery Field
6. Olympic Green Hockey Field
7. Olympic Green Tennis Centre (Flowers)
8. Peking University Gymnasium
9. Beihang University Gymnasium
10. China Agricultural University Gymnasium
11. Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium
12. Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium
13. Beijing Shooting Range Hall
14. Laoshan Mountain Bike Course
15. Workers Gymnasium
16. Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park
17. Triathlon Venue
18. Hong Kong Equestrian Venues
19. Qingdao International Sailing Centre

Symbols

Emblem

The emblem, "Sky, Earth, and Human Beings" ( simplified Chinese: 天、地、人), is a multicolored Chinese character "之" (pinyin: zhī) stylized as an athletic figure in motion. The red, blue, and green in the emblem represent sun, sky, and earth.

Slogan

The slogan is the same as the 2008 Summer Olympics, "One World, One Dream".

Mascots

The mascot is a cartoon cow named Fu Niu Lele ( simplified Chinese: 福牛乐乐), roughly meaning "Lucky Ox 'Happy'".

Theme song

The theme song, sung by well known and popular Cantonese singer Andy Lau is 'Everyone is No.1'.

Torch Relay

The torch relay of the 2008 Summer Paralympics started from Tian Tan (Temple of Heaven) on 28 August. The flame then gathered before The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests (祈年殿) and followed two routes (the "Route of Ancient China" and the "Route of Modern China"). Both routes returned to Beijing on 5 September, and the torch was flamed at the National Stadium during the Opening Ceremony on 6 September.

The Games

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony took place on 6 September 2008. The pre-ceremony performance was a succession of various musical performances, ranging from military music to folk music and a performance of Ode to Joy. Following a countdown, a fireworks display signalled the beginning of the ceremony proper. The national flag of China was then raised, in accordance with usual protocol, and the national anthem of China performed. Performers wearing suits in bright colours paraded round the stadium, as a welcoming ceremony preceding the athletes' entry. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, the ceremony included a parade of nations, with a flag bearer for each national team. Contrary to Olympic tradition, the national team of Greece did not enter first; the host country came last. As Chinese is written in characters and not letters, the order of the teams' entry was determined by the number of strokes in the first character of their respective countries' Simplified Chinese names. Countries with the same number of strokes in the first character are sorted by those of the next character. This made Guinea (几内亚) the first country to enter as it takes two strokes to write the first character in the country's name (几). Following the athletes' parade, a performance took place, divided into chapters and sub-chapters entitled the "Journey of Space" and "Journey of Life" The sunbird performance entailed Yang Haitao (杨海涛), a singer with a visual impairment, singing about dreams while an acrobat in sunbird costume descended in simulated flight from the air and "awakened the blind singer from his sleep". The ceremony concludes with Hou Bin, the high jump gold medalist with one leg lighting the flame cauldron.

Closing ceremony

The closing ceremony will take place on 17 September 2008.

Sports

Twenty sports are on the program:

Archery Athletics Boccia Cycling Equestrian Football 5-a-side Football 7-a-side

Goalball Judo Powerlifting Rowing Sailing Shooting Swimming

Table tennis Volleyball Wheelchair basketball Wheelchair fencing Wheelchair rugby Wheelchair tennis

Rowing will make its first appearance in the Paralympics at these games.

Calendar

Participating NPCs

The following National Paralympic Committees sent delegations to compete. Macau and the Faroe Islands are members of the International Paralympic Committee, but not of the International Olympic Committee; hence they participate in the Paralympic Games but not in the Olympics.

Afghanistan   Algeria   Angola   Argentina   Armenia   Australia   Austria   Azerbaijan   Bahrain   Bangladesh   Barbados   Belarus   Belgium   Benin   Bermuda   Bosnia and Herzegovina   Botswana   Brazil   Bulgaria   Burkina Faso   Burundi   Cambodia   Canada   Cape Verde   Central African Republic   Chile   China Chinese Taipei   Colombia   Costa Rica   Côte d'Ivoire   Croatia   Cuba   Cyprus   Czech Republic   Denmark   Dominican Republic   Ecuador   Egypt   El Salvador   Estonia   Ethiopia   Faroe Islands   Fiji   Finland FYR Macedonia   France   Gabon   Georgia   Germany   Ghana

Great Britain   Greece   Guatemala   Guinea   Haiti   Honduras Hong Kong, China   Hungary   Iceland   India   Indonesia   Iran   Iraq   Ireland   Israel   Italy   Jamaica   Japan   Jordan   Kazakhstan   Kenya   Kuwait   Kyrgyzstan   Laos   Latvia   Lebanon   Lesotho   Lithuania   Luxembourg   Libya   Macau   Madagascar   Malaysia   Mali   Malta   Mauritius   Mexico   Moldova   Mongolia   Montenegro   Morocco Myanmar   Namibia   Nepal   Netherlands   New Zealand   Niger   Nigeria   Norway   Oman

Pakistan   Palestine   Panama   Papua New Guinea   Peru   Philippines   Poland   Portugal   Puerto Rico   Qatar   Romania   Russia   Rwanda   Samoa   Saudi Arabia   Senegal   Serbia   Singapore   Slovakia   Slovenia   South Africa   South Korea   Spain   Sri Lanka   Suriname   Sweden   Switzerland   Syria   Tajikistan   Tanzania   Thailand   Timor-Leste   Tonga   Tunisia   Turkey   Turkmenistan   Uganda   Ukraine   United Arab Emirates   United States   Uruguay   Uzbekistan   Vanuatu   Venezuela   Vietnam   Zambia   Zimbabwe

Medal count

The top ten ranked NPCs at these Games as of 17 September 2008 are listed below. (Host nation is highlighted)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China	89	70	52	211
2	Great Britain	42	29	31	102
3	United States	36	35	28	99
4	Ukraine	24	18	32	74
5	Australia	23	29	27	79
6	South Africa	21	3	6	30
7	Canada	19	10	21	50
8	Russia	18	22	23	63
9	Brazil	16	14	17	47
10	Spain	15	21	22	58

Events Highlights

Coverage

The International Paralympic Committee will be providing live video coverage of the Games on its website ParalympicSport.tv.

The Audio Network provides live audio broadcast coverage of all goalball games during the paralympics.

Local Coverage

• Australia - Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) will present coverage of the Paralympic Games, on ABC1 and ABC2.
• Brazil - Sportv2
• Canada - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is providing coverage on their television and radio networks as well as extensive online coverage at CBC Paralympics in English. TV coverage consists of four digest shows. In French, Radio Canada (SRC), CBC's French language arm, is providing coverage in the form of two digests on television, with news articles on the web.
• China, People's Republic of - Chinese Central Television (CCTV) provides coverage on CCTV-5 and CCTV-7.
• France - Eurosport
• Japan - NHK
• Sweden - Sveriges Television
• United States of America - UniversalSports.com, an online subsidiary of NBC Universal, provides live streaming of selected Paralympic Games events (free registration required).
• United Kingdom - BBC is providing extensive coverage on television, and online.