2008 Summer Paralympics

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XIII. Summer Paralympics
logo
Venue: Beijing , People's Republic of China
China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China 
Opening ceremony: September 6, 2008
Closing ceremony: September 17, 2008
Opened by: Hu Jintao (President of the People's Republic of China)
Competitions: 472 competitions in 20 sports
Countries: 148
Athletes: 4,124 (2568 men, 1383 women)
← Athens 2004
London 2012 →
Medal table
(after all decisions)
space country gold medal Silver medal Bronze medal Total
1 China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China People's Republic of China 89 70 52 211
2 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Great Britain 42 29 31 102
3 United StatesUnited States United States 36 35 28 99
4th UkraineUkraine Ukraine 24 18th 32 74
5 AustraliaAustralia Australia 23 29 27 79
6th South AfricaSouth Africa South Africa 21st 3 6th 30th
7th CanadaCanada Canada 19th 10 21st 50
8th RussiaRussia Russia 18th 23 22nd 63
9 BrazilBrazil Brazil 16 14th 17th 47
10 SpainSpain Spain 15th 21st 22nd 58
11 GermanyGermany Germany 14th 25th 20th 59
... ...
33 AustriaAustria Austria 4th 1 1 6th
34 SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland 3 2 6th 11
Complete medal table

The 13th Summer Paralympics were held from September 6th to 17th, 2008 in the Chinese capital Beijing . The Paralympics are the Olympic Games for people with physical disabilities and took place after the 2008 Summer Olympic Games .

The venue was set on July 13, 2001 by the members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) . The contract between the host countries and the IOC states that the Paralympics will use the same venue as the Olympic Games.

About 4200 athletes from 148 countries were expected, in fact a total of 4124 athletes from 148 countries took part.

The official mascot of the games was Fu Niu Lele .

Competition venues

19 competition venues, including 17 in Beijing , one in Hong Kong and one in Qingdao , have been selected for this Summer Paralympic Games.

New buildings in Beijing

Existing plants in Beijing

Temporary facilities in Beijing

Plants outside of Beijing

  • National swimming center

  • National indoor stadium

  • Technical University

Ceremonies

Opening ceremony

In addition to the athletics competitions, the opening and closing ceremonies also took place in the national stadium in Beijing (also known as the “bird's nest”).

The opening ceremony of the 2008 Paralympics took place on September 6, 2008. It was directed by Zhang Yimou , who also directed the 2008 Summer Olympics ceremonies. The event started with a short show section in which 1000 performers symbolized seven colored career paths and then presented the Paralympics logo . This was followed by the invasion of 147 of the 148 participating nations, which lasted about 90 minutes. The standard bearer of the German team was Conny Dietz .

The big part of the show followed, which began with aerial acrobatics of a sunbird and the appearance of a blind singer. A deaf ballet performed performing a song in sign language to the stars. This was followed by a 12-year-old ballet dancer in a wheelchair who performed a choreography together with other dancers to the music of Maurice Ravel's Boléro . Representations of the four seasons were shown to the music of a blind pianist. In a subsequent mass choreography, children appeared as frogs , lions , cows and ducks . For this purpose, the audience should imitate the characteristic sounds of the animals with the accessories given to them and thus be included in the show. Dancers who were hidden under panels of fabric for most of the performance then performed the dance of 1000 hands with their hands .

The show part was followed by the official part of the opening ceremony. First, Liu Qi , the President of the Organizing Committee, gave a speech welcoming the athletes and spectators and emphasizing the importance of disabled sports. He also emphasized the importance of the Paralympics for progress and development. Then the President of the International Paralympic Committee , Sir Philip Craven , spoke , who remembered the Chinese earthquake victims and praised the cooperation with China in the preparation. This was followed by the official opening of the Paralympics by Chinese President Hu Jintao . Then the official song of the Paralympics 2008 Flying with the Dream was played before the Paralympic flag was carried into the stadium by successful former Paralympic athletes and hoisted to the sound of the Paralympic anthem. Wu Chunmiao took the oath for the athletes and Hao Guohua for the judges . The last part of the event was the lighting of the Olympic flame. The torch was carried through the stadium by , among others, Jin Jing , who was attacked by demonstrators during the torch relay for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Paris. The high jumper Huo Bin pulled himself to the stadium roof on a rope winch in a wheelchair and lit the fire.

Participating Nations

The number of participating athletes is shown in brackets.

Sports and schedule

During these summer Paralympics, 472 competitions were held in 20 sports.

Legend for the competition program shown below:

    Opening and closing ceremony         Qualifying competitions         Final decisions

Last column: total number of decisions in the individual sports

2008 Summer Paralympic Schedule (with number of decisions)
Sat So Mon Tuesday Wed do Fr. Sat So Mon Tuesday Wed total
September 6th 7th 8th. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14th 15th 16. 17th
opening
Boccia 4th 3 7th
Archery 4th 3 2 9
5-a-side football 1 1
7-a-side football 1 1
Goalball 2 2
Judo 4th 4th 5 13
athletics 10 20th 17th 10 16 20th 18th 19th 25th 5 160
Powerlifting (bench press) 3 4th 2 3 4th 2 2 20th
Cycling 5 5 7th 4th 15th 4th 4th 44
horse riding 2 4th 2 3 11
Wheelchair basketball 1 1 2
Wheelchair fencing 3 3 2 2 10
Wheelchair rugby 1 1
Wheelchair tennis 1 3 2 6th
Rowing ¹ 4th 4th
shoot 2 2 2 2 2 2 12
swim 16 18th 16 12 13 16 14th 18th 17th 140
sailing 3 3
Sitting volleyball 1 1 2
Table tennis 5 11 4th 4th 24
graduation
Medal decisions 27 41 61 46 45 52 49 56 51 36 8th 472
September 6th 7th 8th. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14th 15th 16. 17th
Sat So Mon Tuesday Wed do Fr. Sat So Mon Tuesday Wed total

¹ = Rowing was represented as a sport for the first time at these Summer Paralympics.

Web links

Commons : 2008 Summer Paralympics  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Paralympic Games Beijing 2008. Query on August 28, 2012.