2008 Summer Paralympics
Venue: |
Beijing , People'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 | Total | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | People's Republic of China | 89 | 70 | 52 | 211 |
2 | Great Britain | 42 | 29 | 31 | 102 |
3 | United States | 36 | 35 | 28 | 99 |
4th | Ukraine | 24 | 18th | 32 | 74 |
5 | Australia | 23 | 29 | 27 | 79 |
6th | South Africa | 21st | 3 | 6th | 30th |
7th | Canada | 19th | 10 | 21st | 50 |
8th | Russia | 18th | 23 | 22nd | 63 |
9 | Brazil | 16 | 14th | 17th | 47 |
10 | Spain | 15th | 21st | 22nd | 58 |
11 | Germany | 14th | 25th | 20th | 59 |
... | ... | ||||
33 | Austria | 4th | 1 | 1 | 6th |
34 | 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
- National Stadium - Athletics
- National Indoor Stadium - wheelchair basketball
- National Swimming Center - Swimming
- Peking University - table tennis
- Agricultural University of China - Sitting volleyball
- University of Science and Technology - wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby
- Shooting range - shooting
- Shunyi Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Park - rowing
Existing plants in Beijing
- Beijing Aerospace University - Powerlifting (Bench Press)
- Technical University - Goalball
- Laoshan mountain bike terrain - cycling
- Workers Stadium - Judo
Temporary facilities in Beijing
- Olympic Green Exhibition Center - bowls, wheelchair fencing
- Olympic Green Archery Range - Archery
- Olympic Green hockey facility - soccer (teams of 5), soccer (teams of 7)
- Olympic Green Tennis Center - wheelchair tennis
- Reservoir at the Ming tombs - cycling
Plants outside of Beijing
- Hong Kong Equestrian Center - Horse Riding
- Qingdao International Sailing Center - Sailing
Ceremonies
Opening ceremony
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
- Official website of the Beijing Paralympics (English)
- Paralympics Beijing 2008 on the website of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Paralympic Games Beijing 2008. Query on August 28, 2012.