2008 Paralympic Games

The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games (), the 13th Summer Paralympic Games, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the 2008 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.

3,951 athletes from 146 countries took part,"Beijing 2008"
International Paralympic Committee the largest number of nations ever (ten more than the 2004 Games in Athens). 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" ( Pinyin ''Tóng yīge shìjìe tóng yīge mèngxiǎng'', lit. "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 (IPC) 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 a Summer and Winter Games.

Venues

Nineteen competition venues were selected—seventeen in Beijing, one in Hong Kong, and one in Qingdao.

# Beijing National Stadium (''Birds Nest'') - Athletics, Opening and closing ceremonies
#Beijing National Aquatics Center (''Water Cube'') - Swimming
#Beijing National Indoor Stadium (''Fan'') - Wheelchair basketball
# Fencing Gymnasium of Olympic Green Convention Centre - Boccia, Wheelchair fencing
#Olympic Green Archery Field - Archery
#Olympic Green Hockey Field - Football 5-a-side, Football 7-a-side
#Olympic Green Tennis Centre (''Flowers'') - Wheelchair tennis
#Peking University Gymnasium - Table tennis
#Beihang University Gymnasium - Powerlifting
#China Agricultural University Gymnasium - Sitting volleyball
#Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium - Wheelchair rugby
#Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium - Goalball
#Beijing Shooting Range Hall - Shooting
#Laoshan Velodrome - Cycling (track)
# Workers Gymnasium - Judo
#Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park - Rowing
#Triathlon Venue - Cycling (road)
#Hong Kong Equestrian Venues - Equestrian
#Qingdao International 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 (Temple of Heaven) on August 28. The flame then gathered before ''The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests'' (祈年殿) and followed two routes (the "Route of Ancient China" and the "Route of Modern China"). 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''."Full Coverage: The Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games"
, Xinhua, September 6, 2008. 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 (几内亚) the first country to enter as it takes two strokes to write the first character in the country's name (几). 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 (杨海涛), 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.Peopledaily.
Peopledaily.com
" ''China opens Beijing Paralympic Games in celebration of life and humanity.'' Retrieved on September 14, 2008.

Closing ceremony

The 2008 Summer Paralympics closing ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium. It began at 8:00 pm China Standard Time (UTC+8) on September 17, 2008.English People's Daily.
People's daily
" ''2008 Olympics Closing Ceremony – Beijing.'' Retrieved on September 28, 2008.

Sports

Twenty sports were on the program:

* Archery
* Athletics
* Boccia
* Cycling
* Equestrian
* Football 5-a-side
* Football 7-a-side
* Goalball
* Judo
* Powerlifting
* Rowing
* Sailing
* Shooting
* Swimming
* Table tennis
* Volleyball
* Wheelchair basketball
* Wheelchair fencing
* Wheelchair rugby
* Wheelchair tennis

Rowing made its first appearance in the Paralympics at these games.

Calendar

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 and Montenegro 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.

Medal count

This table is based on the medal count of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

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.

Events highlights

International

television

* – Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)'s ABC Television provided coverage on ABC Australian National Television's ABN-2.
* – SporTV2 and Terra Networks.
* – Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in English and Société Radio Canada (SRC) in French.
* – Chinese Central Television (CCTV) provided coverage on CCTV-1 (opening and closing ceremony), CCTV-5 and CCTV-7 as all direct live telecast transmission.
* – Eurosport
* – NHK's NHK General TV provided coverage on JOAK-1
* – AZTV
* – NRK
* – Sveriges Television
* – TRT
* – Universal Sports
* – BBC
...