Now I am as big of a fan of the Olympics Games as you will find. I love every sport, even the ones that arnt necessarily the best sports to watch... but for some reason I can't get into the Paralympics.
Now don't get me wrong what those world class athletes do out there is impressive, and I am excited for the prospect of what they are doing. and I think its great that Canada won so many golds this year in Vancouver, But for some reason I just could not get into it.
So I sat down with all the sports and tried to figure out the issues I had with the Winter Sports:
- Wheelchair Curling: this is the sport i have the hardest time watching, all it is is glorified shuffleboard. There is no athleticism at all... they could just have one guy doing it the whole time. Again its great Canada won gold, and i like the idea of it, but in the end its not a great visual sport.
- Alpine Skiing: I love watching sitting skiing and amputee skiing, its fast and its impressive. My issue with Skiing is the ones were (as an outsider) they dont look like they have a disability, they just look like slow skier, and when the winner of all the women golds is almost 5 secs faster then the silver medalist, it just dosnet make good viewing.
- Cross Country Skiing/Biathlon, I find hard to watch in the Olympics, but I will give it the benefit of the doubt because i didnt see much of it.
- Sledge Hockey was by far my favourite sport to watch on TV, Its fast, its Hard Hitting, and its just plain fun... my only complaint was Canada chocking!
Now this was the year i said i would watch the Paralympics.. it was supposed to be on TV a lot, it was going to be fun, see Canada win lots of medals, but i just couldnt get into it. I have to put some of the blame on CTV, they didn't show a lot of the stuff and pump it up as much at they did for the Olympics. I found that both VANOC and CTV didn't anticipate the reception both the Olympics and the Paralympics would get from the Canadian people, and that's reflected in the under manufacturing of red mittens and the lack of Paralympic coverage.
I will say this, I do look forward to the 2012 Paralympics, there are a lot more sports and a lot more chances for entertainment... lets hope that CTV will let us watch it more then they did in 2010... in fairness CBC never showed anything either.
On a closing note, i do thank the Athletes of the Paralympics, your stories are truly inspirational.
2 comments:
Regardless of how much more coverage of the Paralympics their has been in reference to what there has been in the past, there simply needed to be better distribution of that content. CTV simply did not recognize that their was an audience that wants that content and they wanted it live as well as achieved, whether that be on-line or on the TV. I have been keeping an active blog and a virtual 3D Olympics at http://blog.virtualwhistler.com and if you visit it you will notice that I have been overly positive. I loved these Olympic and Paralympic games but I was and still am rather frustrated to say the least. I WANTED TO SEE MORE PARALYMPIC GAMES. I am lucky because I live in Whistler and get to see the odd event live, but these games are quite captivating and I am saddened to put it mildly that I could not see more of the games.
Ya i can understand that... and if i was there i think i would of gotten more into it, but i spent to much on the Olympics as my last blog talks about lol
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