Wheelchair basketball at the 2008 Summer Paralympics

The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games (), the 13th

Summer Paralympic Games The Summer Paralympics also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, are an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebra ...

, took place in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

, China from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in

Qingdao Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...

. 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 International Paralympic Committee (IPC; german: Internationales Paralympisches Komitee) is an international non-profit organisation and the global governing body for the Paralympic Movement. The IPC organizes the Paralympic Games and func ...

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

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-de ...

s than any other country. The slogan for the 2008 Paralympics was the same as the

, "One World, One Dream" (

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...

''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 Sir Philip Lee Craven (born 4 July 1950) is an English sports administrator, former Paralympic wheelchair basketball player, swimmer and track and field athlete. Between 2001 and 2017 he was the second president of the International Paralymp ...

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

. #

Beijing National Stadium The National Stadium (), also known as the Bird's Nest (), is an 80,000-capacity stadium in Beijing. The stadium was jointly designed by architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron from Basel-based architecture team Herzog & de Meuron, p ...

(''Birds Nest'') - Athletics, Opening and closing ceremonies #

Beijing National Aquatics Center The National Aquatics Centre (), and colloquially known as the Water Cube () and the Ice Cube (), is an aquatics center at the Olympic Green in Beijing, China. The facility was originally constructed to host the aquatics competitions at the 2 ...

(''Water Cube'') - Swimming #

Beijing National Indoor Stadium The National Indoor Stadium (official name) ()Official Beijing Olympics siteNational Indoor Stadium is an indoor stadium that is located in the Olympic Green in Beijing, China. The stadium has a capacity of 20,000 people, and was constructed ...

(''Fan'') - Wheelchair basketball # Fencing Gymnasium of Olympic Green Convention Centre - Boccia, Wheelchair fencing #

Olympic Green Archery Field The Olympic Green Archery Field () was one of nine temporary venues for the 2008 Summer Olympics. It hosted the archery events. The field occupied 9.22 hectares The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square ...

- Archery #

Olympic Green Hockey Field The Olympic Green Hockey Field () was one of nine temporary venues used for the 2008 Summer Olympics. It hosted the field hockey competitions during the Olympics and the football-5-a-side and 7-a-side events during the 2008 Summer Paralympics. ...

- Football 5-a-side, Football 7-a-side #

Olympic Green Tennis Centre The National Tennis Center (), is a tennis center located in the Olympic Green. It opened on 1 October 2007. It hosted the tennis preliminaries and finals of singles and doubles for men and women at the Beijing 2008 Olympics as well as the Pa ...

(''Flowers'') - Wheelchair tennis #

Peking University Gymnasium Peking University Gymnasium (), nicknamed China's Spine (), is an indoor arena located in the southeastern part of Peking University in Beijing, China. The gymnasium was constructed for the table tennis events of the 2008 Summer Olympics and the ...

- Table tennis #

Beihang University Gymnasium Beihang University Gymnasium (, sometime listed as the Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics Gymnasium) is a 5,400-seat indoor arena located on the campus of Beihang University in Beijing, China. It hosted weightlifting competitions at ...

- Powerlifting #

China Agricultural University Gymnasium The China Agricultural University Gymnasium () is an indoor arena located on the campus of the China Agricultural University in Beijing. It hosted the wrestling events of the 2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Ga ...

- Sitting volleyball #

Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium The Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium () is an indoor arena located on the campus of the University of Science and Technology Beijing. The venue covers an area of 2.38 hectares and the total floor space of construction reaches 2 ...

- Wheelchair rugby #

Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium () is a 5,000-seat indoor arena located on the campus of Beijing Institute of Technology in Beijing, China. It hosted volleyball competitions at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the goalball competition at the ...

- 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 The Hong Kong Sports Institute () is a sports institute located in Sha Tin, New Territories, Hong Kong. It is mandated to provide training to athletes, and also offers academic qualification in the field of sports training. The institute sponsors ...

- Equestrian #

Qingdao International Sailing Centre The Qingdao International Sailing Centre () is a sailing marina located on the former site of the Beihai Shipyard by Qingdao's Fushan Bay at Shandong Province in China. It was constructed for the 2008 Summer Olympics. It hosted the Olympic and Par ...

- 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

, "One World, One Dream".

Mascots

The mascot was a cartoon cow named

Fu Niu Lele Fu Niu Lele (; literally "lucky happy ox"), was the mascot of the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. The mascot, designed by Wu Guanying (吴冠英), professor at the Academy of Arts and Design at Tsinghua University, was unveiled on September ...

(), 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 Andy Lau Tak-wah (; born 27 September 1961) is a Hong Kong actor, singer-songwriter and film producer. He has been one of Hong Kong's most commercially successful film actors since the mid-1980s, performing in more than 160 films while maint ...

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 "Ode to Joy" (German language, German: , literally "To heJoy") is an ode written in the summer of 1785 by German poet, playwright, and historian Friedrich Schiller and published the following year in ''Thalia (magazine), Thalia''. A slightl ...

''."Full Coverage: The Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games"
, Xinhua, September 6, 2008. Following a countdown, a

fireworks Fireworks are a class of low explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large number of devices ...

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 A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and Europea ...

of China performed. Performers wearing suits in bright colours paraded round the stadium, as a welcoming ceremony preceding the athletes' entry. As with the

, 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 Stoke Mandeville is a village and civil parish in the Vale of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located three miles (4.9 km) from Aylesbury and 3.4 miles (5.5 km) from the market town of Wendover. Although a separate civil ...

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 Simplification, Simplify, or Simplified may refer to: Mathematics Simplification is the process of replacing a mathematical expression by an equivalent one, that is simpler (usually shorter), for example * Simplification of algebraic expressions ...

names. Countries with the same number of strokes in the first character are sorted by those of the next character. This made

Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

(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

, 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

. It began at 8:00 pm

China Standard Time The time in China follows a single standard time offset of UTC+08:00 (eight hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time), even though the country spans almost five geographical time zones. The official national standard time is called ''Beijing ...

( 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 Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In ...

Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

* Boccia *

Cycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from ...

Equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or Riding in British English) Examples of this are: *Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes in ...

Football 5-a-side Paralympic football consists of adaptations of the sport of association football for athletes with a physical disability. These sports are typically played using International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) rules, with modifications to ...

Football 7-a-side Cerebral palsy football, also called ''7-a-side football'' or formerly ''Paralympic football'', is an adaptation of association football for athletes with cerebral palsy and other neurological disorders, including stroke and traumatic brain injur ...

* Goalball *

Judo is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo") ...

Powerlifting Powerlifting is a strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts: squat, bench press, and deadlift. As in the sport of Olympic weightlifting, it involves the athlete attempting a maximal weight single-lift effo ...

* Rowing *

Sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' ( land yacht) over a chose ...

Shooting Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles ...

* Swimming *

Table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

* Wheelchair basketball *

Wheelchair fencing Wheelchair fencing is a version of fencing for athletes with a disability. Wheelchair fencing is governed by the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation that is a federation of the International Paralympic Committee, and is one of ...

* Wheelchair rugby * Wheelchair tennis Rowing made its first appearance in the Paralympics at these games.

Calendar

Participating NPCs

The following

National Paralympic Committee A National Paralympic Committee (NPC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Paralympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), NPCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the ...

s sent delegations to compete.

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

and the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

are members of the

, but not of the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...

; hence they participate in the Paralympic Games but not in the Olympics.

Burundi Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Gr ...

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the nort ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and s ...

and

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = ...

participated in the Paralympics for the first time.

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kal ...

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 Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

* –

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owne ...

(ABC)'s

ABC Television ABC Television most commonly refers to: *ABC Television Network of the American Broadcasting Company, United States, or *ABC Television (Australian TV network), a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia ABC Television or ABC ...

provided coverage on ABC Australian National Television's ABN-2. * – SporTV2 and

Terra Networks Terra is a Spanish Internet multinational company owned by Telefónica, with headquarters in Spain and offices in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, the United States and Peru. Part of Telefónica Group (the former Spanish public telephone mon ...

. * –

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the governmen ...

(CBC) in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

and Société Radio Canada (SRC) in

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

. * – Chinese Central Television (CCTV) provided coverage on CCTV-1 ( opening and

closing ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly-constructed location or the start of an event.

), CCTV-5 and CCTV-7 as all direct live telecast transmission. * –

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its international sports unit, it operates two main channels— Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

* – NHK's

NHK General TV , abbreviated on-screen as NHK G, is the main television service of NHK, the Japanese public broadcaster. Its programming includes news, drama, quiz/variety shows, music, sports, anime, and specials which compete directly with the output of i ...

provided coverage on JOAK-1 * – AZTV * –

NRK NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...

* –

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag (national ...

* –

TRT The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT; Turkish : ) is the national public broadcaster of Turkey, founded in 1964. TRT was for many years the only television and radio provider in Turkey. Before the introduction of commercial radio i ...

* – Universal Sports * – BBC provided coverage on

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

. In France, following the Games,

Philippe Juvin Philippe Juvin (born 1 February 1964) is a French medical doctor and politician of the Republicans (LR) who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2009 until 2019 for the Île-de-France constituency. He is currently mayor of La Ga ...

, national secretary of the governing

Union for a Popular Movement The Union for a Popular Movement (french: link=no, Union pour un mouvement populaire, ; UMP, ) was a centre-right political party in France that was one of the two major contemporary political parties in France along with the centre-left Soci ...

, 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."Jeux paralympiques: France TV va attaquer Juvin (UMP) pour diffamation"
, Agence France-Presse, September 18, 2008.

References

External links

Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games Official SiteInternational Paralympic CommitteeParalympic Online Streaming Coverage
{{Authority control

Summer Paralympics The Summer Paralympics also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, are an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebra ...

Paralympics The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaired ...

Sports competitions in Beijing

2000s in Beijing Multi-sport events in China Summer Paralympic Games September 2008 sports events in Asia