[Sportsandrec] Olympics and Paralympics as one event

[Danielle Nicole Larsen]

I guess I should start by introducing myself. I'm Danielle. I live in the
US, in south New Jersey. I'm a sophomore in college, and I've played
goalball for awhile. This is the start of my sixth season.
I play goalball for the state of New Jersey. And one of my team mates had
the incredible honor of playing goalball for team USA out in Beijing. Yes
there was definitely coverage of that courtesy of Bill Teale and the audio
network. However any other athletes I know competing in other sports or even
those interested had to struggle to learn about what was happening. Even
with goalball, if it wasn't for the large network of people it would have
been hard to follow. I think it's outrageous that Paralympians train just
has hard as Olympians but get like negative recognition. 
As far as I know there was not just one person deciding. It was sort of a
combined decision by mass media to cover what they think will be watched
most.
For instance, ESPN can cover the National YoYo championship. But Paralympic
sports clearly don't reach that level of competition.. OR NOT. 
It's getting better but not nearly fast enough..
I could continue on this forever.... What are other thoughts? Rationale? 
--Danielle

-----Original Message-----
From: sportsandrec-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:sportsandrec-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of annie Sawicki
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 9:59 PM
To: Sports and Recreation for the Blind Discussion List
Subject: Re: [Sportsandrec] Olympics and Paralympics as one event

I was absolutely disheartened about how NBC and the other networks  
covered our extraordinary Paralympic athletes, yet I have to read  
tons of reports on the awful plane crash that saved DJAM and Travis  
Barker--with burns that will affect their lifer. Maybe America just  
does not understand physical disabilities and we need to continue to  
work for greater understanding and funding. What happened and who  
made this decision?
On Sep 23, 2008, at 11:37 AM, Cervenka, Stacy (Brownback) wrote:

> For the record, I've totally been saying this for the past couple of
> months. I personally loved watching the Olympics, but I think it's
> disgraceful how little mainstream attention is paid to the  
> Paralympics.
> I definitely think there should just be one Olympic Games, one Team  
> USA,
> and one opening and closing ceremonies with the whole world there.  
> They
> could have, judo, blind judo, track and field, wheelchair track and
> field, cycling, blind tandem cycling. The Paralympics are a great
> illustration of the point that separate is not equal.
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