2.5 - Blades Of Gold (Paralympic Movement)

Question 1

How many tickets were sold for the Rio Paralympics?

Answer 1

• 2 million
• increase from 1.5 million in Beijing

Question 2

What is the main point of the Paralympic movement?

Answer 2

• to promote seriously disabled people as being capable of great things
• instead of being a victimised minority

Question 3

What is the broadcasting situation of the Paralympics?

Answer 3

• Channel 4 showed 400hrs of coverage during London 2012

Some countries historically have had minimal coverage:
- Russia
- Japan
- US

Question 4

What are the major issues with the Paralympic movement?

Answer 4

• needs large financial backing to make a team, thus only 9 teams form 40% of total competitors
  
  • thus makes it harder to connect with those in lesser developed nations
• can run risk of portraying only those disabled people who engage in athletics as being interesting, ignoring those in more everyday positions

Question 5

What are the main advantages that the Paralympic Movement brings?

Answer 5

• encourages R&D into enhanced mobility for disabled people (Toyota Sit-ski)
• infrastructure for games needs to be designed around them, thus ideas can be prototyped before being taken into public
• raises the importance of equality, may make other marginalised groups also challenge their treatment
• other disabled people may also be inspired and could demand for more accessible infrastructure as well

Question 6

How many countries participated in Tokyo 2020?

Answer 6

• 162

Question 7

What did the Mayor of Tokyo propose during Tokyo 2020

Answer 7

• allowing children to spectate
• ensures future generation gains an appreciation for the abilities of disabled people and realise that they too are capable