2008 Summer Paralympics


The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games, the 13th Summer Paralympic Games, took place in Beijing, China, from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the Summer Olympics">Summer Paralympics">Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao. It was first time the new Paralympic logo featured in the Summer Paralympics since its rebranding after the 2004 Summer Paralympics. The Paralympics held in Beijing is the first and only to be held with spectator, as the Winter Paralympics">Winter Paralympics">Winter Paralympics in Beijing held without spectator due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
3,951 athletes from 146 countries took part, the largest number of nations ever. Five countries competed for the first time. As host country, China fielded more athletes than any other country. The slogan for the 2008 Paralympics was the same as the 2008 Summer Olympics, "One World, One Dream". China dominated the medal count, finishing with 89 gold medals and 211 total medals, more than double the next-ranked NPC in both cases. 339 Paralympic records and 279 world records were broken. International Paralympic Committee President Philip Craven declared the Games "the greatest Paralympic Games ever."
Beijing was selected to host the 2022 Winter Paralympics, making it the first city to host both Summer and Winter Games.
WWW Official Site

Venues

Image:Birds Nest Cropped.jpg|thumb|right|350px|The Beijing National Stadium
Nineteen competition venues were selected—seventeen in Beijing, one in Hong Kong, and one in Qingdao.
  1. Beijing National Stadium - Athletics, Opening and closing ceremonies
  2. Beijing National Aquatics Center - Swimming
  3. Beijing National Indoor Stadium - Wheelchair basketball
  4. Fencing Gymnasium of Olympic Green Convention Centre - Boccia, Wheelchair fencing
  5. Archery Field">Paralympic archery">Archery Field - Archery
  6. Olympic Green Hockey Field - Football 5-a-side, Football 7-a-side
  7. Olympic Green Tennis Centre - Wheelchair tennis
  8. Peking University Gymnasium - Table tennis
  9. Beihang University Gymnasium - Powerlifting
  10. China Agricultural University Gymnasium - Sitting volleyball
  11. Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium - Wheelchair rugby
  12. Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium - Goalball
  13. Shooting Range Hall">Paralympic shooting">Shooting Range Hall - Shooting
  14. Laoshan Velodrome - Cycling
  15. Workers Gymnasium - Judo
  16. Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park - Rowing
  17. Triathlon Venue - Cycling
  18. Equestrian Venues">Equestrian at the Summer Paralympics">Equestrian Venues - Equestrian
  19. Sailing Centre">Sailing (sport)">Sailing Centre - Sailing

Symbols

Emblem

The Games's emblem, "Sky, Earth, and Human Beings", was unveiled in July 2004, a multicolored Chinese character "之" stylized as an athletic figure in motion. Its red, blue and green colors represent sun, sky and earth.

Slogan

The slogan was the same as the 2008 Summer Olympics, "One World, One Dream".

Mascots

The mascot was a cartoon cow named Fu Niu Lele, roughly meaning "Lucky Ox 'Happy'".

Theme song

The theme song was "Flying with the Dream". It was performed by Chinese-Tibetan singer Han Hong and Hong Kong singer and actor Andy Lau.

Torch relay

The torch relay of the 2008 Summer Paralympics started from Tian Tan on August 28. The flame then gathered before The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and followed two routes. Both routes returned to Beijing on September 5, and the torch was flamed at the National Stadium during the Opening Ceremony on September 6.

The Games

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony took place on September 6, 2008. The pre-ceremony performance was a succession of various musical performances, ranging from military music to folk music and a performance of Ode to Joy. Following a countdown, a fireworks display signalled the beginning of the ceremony proper. The national flag of China was then raised, in accordance with usual protocol, and the national anthem of China performed. Performers wearing suits in bright colours paraded round the stadium, as a welcoming ceremony preceding the athletes' entry. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, the ceremony included a parade of nations, with a flag bearer for each national team. Contrary to Olympic tradition, the national team of Greece did not enter first, as the Paralympic Games traces its roots to Stoke Mandeville rather than Olympia; the host country, as is customary in both Olympic and Paralympic Games, came last. As Chinese is written in characters and not letters, the order of the teams' entry was determined by the number of strokes in the first character of their respective countries' Simplified Chinese names. Countries with the same number of strokes in the first character are sorted by those of the next character. This made Guinea the first country to enter as it takes two strokes to write the first character in the country's name. Following the athletes' parade, a performance took place, divided into chapters and sub-chapters entitled the "Journey of Space" and "Journey of Life". The sunbird performance entailed Yang Haitao, a singer with a visual impairment, singing about dreams while an acrobat in sunbird costume descended in simulated flight from the air and "awakened the blind singer from his sleep". The ceremony concludes with Hou Bin, the first Chinese paralympian to be three-time champion consecutively in the same event, lifted himself and his wheelchair up on a rope by strength of arms to the top of Beijing National Stadium, where he lit the cauldron to mark the beginning of the Games.

Closing ceremony

The 2008 Summer Paralympics closing ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium. It began at 8:00 pm China Standard Time on September 17, 2008.

Sports

The programme of the 2008 Summer Paralympics featured events in 20 sports. The number of events in each sport is noted in parentheses.
Rowing made its first appearance in the Paralympics at these games.

Participating NPCs

The following National Paralympic Committees sent delegations to compete. Macau and the Faroe Islands are members of the International Paralympic Committee, but not of the International Olympic Committee; hence they participate in the Paralympic Games but not in the Olympics.
Burundi, Gabon, Georgia, Haiti, Montenegro and Serbia participated in the Paralympics for the first time.
Botswana was due to take part, but its single athlete, defending Paralympic champion sprinter Tshotlego Morama, withdrew prior to the Games due to injury. The country's last-minute attempt to field other athletes in her place was rejected, as they did not meet the requirement of having participated in international events.
Participating National Paralympic Committees

Medal count

This table is based on the medal count of the International Paralympic Committee.
The ranking is sorted primarily by the number of gold medals earned by a National Paralympic Committee. The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals. If countries are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically by IPC Country Code.

International [television]

In France, following the Games, Philippe Juvin, national secretary of the governing Union for a Popular Movement, accused national public television network France Télévisions of having practiced "segregation" by providing live coverage of the Beijing Olympics but only ten-minute daily summaries of events, outside prime time, for the Beijing Paralympics. France Télévisions replied that it would take Juvin to court for slander.