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SUSIE MALLETT

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Showing posts with label Paralympic Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paralympic Games. Show all posts

Wednesday, 5 September 2012

Just once in a Blue Moon - London 2012



'Its blue!'
The second full moon in August. 
August 31, 2012 by Susie Mallett

A Blue Moon event!

The Blue Moon did not appear orange as the first full moon of the month had –


 But it was not blue either!

I caught the first full moon on camera as I cycled home from work in Nürnberg on a gorgeous summer evening when the temperature was still about thirty degrees Celsius.

I was very lucky to catch a shot of the Blue Moon at all as it peeped out between the English rain-clouds on a very dark evening that had a distinct feel of autumn about it.

I have my fingers crossed for fairer weather for my less-than-once in a Blue-Moon trip to the Paralympics on Monday. My excitement mounts and it is lovely to be in the country, and occasionally in front of a television, to catch some of the Olympic excitement.

I can also get up to date with the names of athletes and various sports that are new to me so that I am a little more knowledgeable when I get off the 05.30 train from Norwich at Stratford and make my way to the Olympic Stadium. As I wrote most of this I read online that Oscar Pistorious had set a new 200 metres world record knocking almost one-and-a-half seconds off the old one but later he got beaten to silver medal position in the final.

I cannot wait to sit in that stadium and hear the roar of the crowds.

I cannot imagine when I will ever get the chance to attend a Paralympic Games again, at the moment Rio seems a long way away! So I will certainly make the most of my once-in-a-Blue-Moon experience on September 3, 2012. 

Sunday, 19 August 2012

The Olympic Games are not over yet


'Boccia'

'Weightlifting!'


There is just a short break for moving the furniture!

Most of the world is being told through the media that the games are now over. The people of Great Britain are also being asked to hang on to the Olympic Legacy and to prevent the closure of school playing fields and sporting facilities.

Headlines that cry out from newspapers front pages include – ‘Games go out with a bang’, ‘Team GB’s medal heroes’, ‘Was London better than Sydney?’, ‘The Peoples Games’.

All of these headlines seem to indicate that things have come to an end in the Olympic sporting world, but, for more than 4000 athletes, the excitement, hard work, moments of highs and lows, have all yet to come.

Team GB is waiting until after the Paralympics have taken place to have an open-top bus parade through London to celebrate the successes of all the sportsmen and women, but in other countries similar celebrations have already taken place without the Para-Olympians.

I believe that in Germany ARD and ZDF television channels will have live coverage of 5-10 hours daily of the Paralympics, but as yet there is little about the first ever all-tickets-sold Paralympics to be read in the newspapers here.

I wonder how much media coverage the Paralympics will get in other countries.

I have read in the British press that Channel Four have launched an advertising campaign, that the symbol for the Games has already replaced the five Olympic rings at some sites and that the torch is already underway on its relay through Great Britain. More and more tickets are being released and, just like the tickets for the events in the last couple of weeks, these too are selling like hot cakes.

I wish now that I had been more aware of the preparations for the Paralympics during the last four years. I think that I would have volunteered in some capacity had I realized that this was possible, but unfortunately I was not aware of this possibility until it was too late. I did, however, think about buying some tickets before it was too late!

Before the big rush for them began I got in touch with a friend in England who, having been to watch some of the Olympic sailing events was already conversant with the complicated ticketing system. Thanks to his patient efforts online we are now the really excited holders of tickets for events at the Olympic Stadium, the Copper Box and the Excel Stadium. I think we will see athletics, sitting volleyball and goal-ball but I cannot be quite sure until I get the tickets.

My sister has joined my excitement and informed me that has bought me a Paralympics’ T-shirt and I have already packed my Union Flag scarf that I purchased for the Diamond jubilee celebrations in June!

I am already for off and the Games have not even started yet! I have shared my excitement with all of my clients at work too and we all wish there was space in my suitcase alongside my Union Flag for them to come too.

How it all began

Most people in Britain have heard of the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire. People my age and older perhaps know more than most through regularly watching TV campaigns for raising money for and awareness of this great hospital and the spinal injuries unit.

What I did not know is that it was here that the pioneering work, by a German neurologist, Sir Ludwig Guttmann, took place that evolved into what we now know as the Paralympics games.


Towards the end of the Second World War Sir Ludwig Guttmann was asked to move from his research work at Oxford University to run the spinal injuries unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. He was needed to develop rehabilitation and care facilities for the many service men returning injured from war.

A documentary film has been made that will be shown on the BBC in August that celebrates Dr Guttmann’s achievements, describing how he had faith in the tremendous ability of the human spirit, the human soul perhaps, to overcome difficulties –


The first Mandeville Games took place on the same day as the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in 1948. It was an archery event organized for a group of 16 World War Two veterans with spinal injuries. Since that day the Paralympic Games for disabled athletes has grown to include many sports for not only spinally injured athletes but also athletes with many other disabilities.

If the media have got it right, this year is going to be the biggest event in the history of Paralympics, with most tickets for the many venues already sold and with the 4000 athletes arriving in London from over 150 different countries! 

I am so excited

I will be one of many thousands of spectators in the stadiums to cheer the competitors on. I realise as I write this that in the thirty-five years that I have been working in this field I have never been to a sports meeting for people with disability. This is rather a grand way of getting started and it is sure to be the highlight of my trip home.

Notes

Dr Ludwig Guttmann –

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-18592534



Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Buckinghamshire England –



The Paralympics—



Saturday, 4 August 2012

Spontaneous, infectious excitement!


The first of this month's two full moons, 2 August 2012
This first August moon changed from pink to orange while I was cycling home. Look out for the 'Blue Moon' on 31st August



I do not know who are more excited, me and my friend or my clients!

When I told everyone at work this week, adults and children, colleagues and clients, that a friend of mine in England, who is himself enjoying London 2012’s sailing events this weekend in Weymouth, has secured tickets for us both to attend three events in the Paralympics, there were whoops of delight all around. Anyone listening would have thought that I was taking them all with me. Oh, how I wish I could!

My friend and I will watch athletics at the Olympic Stadium, goal ball in the Copper Box and sitting volleyball at the Excel Stadium!

We will take as many photographs as possible and I will bring as many souvenirs back with me that I can carry to share amongst the excited followers at work.

I believe that the athletic events that we have tickets for will include the 400m heats so I may quite possibly get to see Oscar Pistorius run, who has, by the way, just this morning qualified for the semi-final of the other 400m that he is competing in!

An amazing achievement!