CBS, the Olympic station in the United States, has determined that the Paralympics are not newsworthy enough to cover and plan no coverage at all. CBC in Canada, I understand, will have limited coverage with only special broadcasts of highlight packages available.
You would think that these networks would show a little more interest considering there are five sports (alpine skiing, cross country skiing, biathlon, ice sledge racing, and ice sledge hockey) 34 events, 32 nations, and 587 athletes involved!
The Paralympics are held every four years. The first Winter Paralympic Games were held in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden, in 1976. Since the Albertville Games in 1992, the Games have been held in the same venues as the regular Olympics. Now I do realize that media giants do have budgets for sports coverage but since there is only a few days between the regular Olympics and the Paralympics, would it really be that difficult to hold some of their crews behind to give us some coverage of these games? I know that the biathlon is not as exciting as ladies figure skating, but these athletes have trained for years just like regular Olympians and they do deserve some coverage!
Thankfully the official Nagano Paralympic web site has realized that there are some of us out here interested in seeing some of these games. They have made arrangements on their web site for Real Player coverage of several events. Although somehow a two-inch screen on my computer monitor just doesn't seem to equal the coverage we got for the Olympics. I wonder how many mothers out there will receive a "Hi Mom" from a gold medal winner and not even know it because she didn't have her eyeglasses on! :)
So for those of you who haven't had enough from the M-Wave, or are going thru Olympic withdrawal, point your browsers to the Official Nagano Paralympic Site.
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