Watched the opening ceremony for the Paralympics lat night. (I looked for a clip to link to but it doesn’t seem to be up on youtube yet). It was a good show, solid and not obviously as flashy as the Olympics version. But it was really moving to see the disabled athletes carrying the torch. And the torch lighting was amazing. A wheelchair bound gentleman (I didn’t catch his name) hauled himself up hand over hand several hundred feet on a rope (including the wheelchair) from the floor of the stadium to the upper level, where he lit the torch. He was visibly exhausted by the time he got to the top, breathing heavily and grimacing a bit. Along with other viewers, I was holding my breath (ok, not literally) during the couple of minutes it took him to get to the top and spontaneously let out a cheer when he reached over and lit the flame. Truly inspiring. I was planning to see some events (paralympic rugby i supposed to be pretty wild and that is available on youtube, check out this hit), but now definitely will. And take my kids. The amazing dedication of non-challenged athletes certainly struck them during the Olympics. But those years of training are to easy to forget in the blaze of athleticism. The triumph over adversity is visible every second that many paralympians compete .
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