I have been saying since at least 2008 that the Paralympics should be laid to rest, so I was glad to see the other day that it is an opinion that is gaining a bit more support (as well as a fair bit of opposition). It is too late to make any change in time for the London 2012 Olympics, which is a shame having just one opening and closing ceremony would save a few bob wouldn’t it?
Not that cost-cutting is the reason. I just think that it would be better for all sorts of reasons. Countries take the medal table very seriously for the Olympics, and I reckon that if the current Paralympic events counted towards that total it would give a lot more prominence to those events. Anyone agree?
I completely agree! I’m currently writing a speech about the paralympics, and this is definately one of the ideas we will be including.
This is the 21st century! I really think that the paralympics are a dated idea and should be combined with the olympics. It always seems like an afterthought when they should be equally important!
There is another way of looking at it, a sort of thought experiment.
If the Olympics already had the Paralympics included (that is, with different categories within events to allow for different capabilities) and somebody suggested splitting them up how would that go?
If you can successfully argue that it is right to make the Paralympics seperate because the participants have different capabilities then you could argue reductio ad absurdum that there should be a seperate womoen’s Olympics because they can’t run as fast or throw as far as men.
Drawing those parallels might be interesting.
That would be an interesting comparison to use in the speech, thank you.