Paralympic Games open with empty wings but a bigger stage

NBCUniversal, the longtime Olympic and Paralympic network in the United States, has committed to 1,200 hours of coverage on its television and broadcast platforms, with just 70 hours from Brazil in 2016 and five and a half hours from the Olympics London 2012. The show will be taped at the highlight of Time Paralympic on NBC’s main channel, four hours across three specials.

Another sign of the rise in the bar of adapted sports for people with disabilities, the United States Olympic Committee has become the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

“We are here”, Jessica Long, A swimmer who has won 13 gold medals and will compete in her fifth Paralympic Games, told The New York Times when the name change was announced in 2019.

However, the resources for Paralympians, from media coverage to sponsorship deals, hardly come close to what is available to Olympians. Tokyo’s large cavernous press center is now a desert, and online searches for Paralympic Games information typically result in press releases from Games organizers. And while the cash prizes for American athletes have been matched, some franchises have not.

Because spectators were prohibited from entering Tokyo, the USOPC held state-side viewing nights for two relatives or friends of each athlete. There were four Olympic meetings, each spanning five days, but only one was scheduled for the Paralympic Games. After some Paralympians and their loved ones noticed the gap, they said a second night of viewing was added.

The standard to be exceeded at the Tokyo Paralympic Games will be the London 2012 Paralympic Games. To this day, athletes care about the crowded and informed crowd, as well as the spirit of this gathering, fueled in part by the history of Britain as the birthplace of adaptive sports and by brutal Channel 4 reporting. sold on BBC For competition rights.