Road to the Paralympics

2012-02-07T13:03:00.000+01:00

We would like to start this blogpost with an amazing footage of the new movie: Road to London 2012. Unfortunately half of the footage and the subtitles are in Dutch but you can still see how three athletes are preparing for the Paralympics in London 2012. The film focuses on the power and the energy of the athletes and how they use this power to turn around their disadvantage into an advantage!

Something about the preparation for the Paralympics The preparation you see in the footage starts already in 2010, when the qualifications for the paralympic games began, and will continue until august 2012. This qualification is so severe that you will certainly see the best athletes during the games. First of all, each sport’s International Federation (IF) sets strict qualification criteria that athletes or teams have to meet. Of course, the type of qualification may vary between sports because certain athletes achieve qualification for themselves and others have to wait for the National Olympic Committee (NOC) to select their choice of athlete. There are also strict rules concerning how many athletes may enter per discipline or event. The last phase of the qualifications is when the IF confirms before a strict deadline set by the NOC which athletes have gained a place for the games. As you can see, participating in the paralympics is only reserved for the best!

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The Paralympic games are coming!

2012-01-25T14:15:00.001+01:00

Welcome to the blog of Evelyne Minneboo and Beau Bauman.

We will keep you up-to-date about the preparation for the Paralympics. The 14th edition of the Paralympic games will be held in London, the United Kingdom. This is going to be London’s third Olympic Games, but only it’s first Paralympics. The reason for starting this blog about the Paralympic games is to support all the Paralympic sporters in their preparation and to increase awareness concerning their wonderful performances. The Rodger Federer, Michael Jordan and Lionel Messi of the Paralympic Games are not as wellknown as the ones just mentioned. Therefore, we will highlight one top sporter every blogpost.

First, we will start with sharing some interesting facts. Did you know that the organization that hosts the Olympic Games also hosts the Paralympic games? This link was customary since 1988 but until now not obligatory. In addition, for the first time since the Paralympics of 2000, athletes with an intellectual disability participate in the coming Paralympics, they used to participate in the Special Olympics World Games.
The sports that will take place in London during the Paralympics are: athletics, bench press, boccia, goalball, archery, judo, equestrian sports, rowing, wheelchair basketball, swordplay, shooting sports, table tennis, soccer, cycle racing, sailing, sitting volleyball, swimming, biatlon and wheelchair curling. We are looking forward to show you how great these sports and sporters are!

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