Helping to Inspire the Next Generation – a Worthwhile Legacy for the Olympics and Paralympics
The point at which this blog is being submitted to this site a ‘victory parade’ to celebrate the success of both the Olympic and Paralympic Games is proceeding through the streets of London. 21 floats will go from Mansion House to Buckingham Place, with thousands of people attending the procession. For those that are unable to attend this procession, it is worth taking a moment to reflect on how successful the Olympics have been over the summer.
For the disabled, today’s procession may be very pleasing. When the Olympics came to an end there was a huge wave of disappointment on the web, with most people not knowing what to do now that the Olympics was over. Most people believed that it didn’t end there, the Paralympics would be just as good and provide lots more success – and they were proved even more right than most people had imagined.
As Jonathan Freedland had reported in his fantastic article which was published in the Guardian, this was ‘surely the most successful Paralympic Games since the first such competition’. It is pleasing to know that a new record number of 4,629 disabled athletes competed from over 160 different countries, but more people watched the Paralympics than ever before whether it was the 2.7 million who watched the events live or the millions of British people that watched the Paralympics from the comfort of their own homes – 6.7 million for Jonnie Peacock’s 100m gold medal final alone.
The success of the Paralympics has kicked off crucial debates about representation and visibility of disabled people in today’s society. The controversy over Royal Mail’s production of the special stamps was crucial, and subsequently resulted in special stamps being made for every single Paralympic gold medallist. And throughout the games there has much debate about how much the media and viewers should focus on a person’s physical disability, and how much focus should be placed on their sporting achievements.
The truth is when we tune in to watch sports such as football which is being played by blind people it does make us consider how a disability can impact on the way in which the person competes.
However, it is also true that if this were all the Paralympics had been about – thought provoking lessons and social education – then the number of people watching the Paralympics would have been significantly lower. The public were immersed in the hype surrounding the different events and the sport of it. The fact that Team GB did so well in both games did help quite a bit.
Yes, we will soon place our attention towards the legacy of both games. What will happen to the fantastic facilities that were built specifically for the Games and how will this help the deprived areas of East London where they are located? How will we make sure that the celebration of future disabled people’s achievements continue, and that the spotlight doesn’t shift as quickly as it came?
But for today it is worth rejoicing in the fact that the spotlight will be shared between both Olympians and Paralympians, with medallists and competitors from both games receiving the congratulations that they have deserved. As 17-year-old swimmer Ellie Simmonds said, we can now believe – with some optimism – that this summer’s remarkable games will ‘inspire the next generation’, enduringly.
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Find out more information about the support available to those people with a physical disability by visiting: http://www.unitedresponse.org.uk/what-we-do/physical-disability-and-acquired-brain-injury/