Final Paralympics Update 2008

I just thought I would give you the final Team GB medalists list and the final results on the medals table for the Beijing Paralympics 2008.
We gained one more gold medal today from David Weir in the Men's 1500m T54 Athletics.
2 more silvers came from Mickey Bushell in the Men's 100m T53 Athletics and Shelly Woods in the Women's 1500m T54 Athletics
Our 3 final bronze medals came from the Men's Basketball team (Joe Bestwick, Andy Blake, Simon Brown, Matt Byrne, Terry Bywater, Peter Finbow, Jon Hall, Kevin Hayes, Abdi Jama, Simon Munn, Ade Orogbemi and Jon Pollock); Ian Jones in the Men's 400m T44 Athletics; And Hazel Simpson in the Women's 100m T36 Athletics.

Overall we ended in second place behind China and ahead of the USA where we were for almost all of the competition in a performance that the whole team, and the country, can be proud of. Medals came from all ranges of ages, regions, levels of disability and length of practice in their sports and they, and we hope that it is a magnificent target that will only be bettered when it comes to the 2012 London Paralympics. Good on you Team GB, we are proud.

I have only one thing left to add. I was ignorant, as are a lot of people when it comes to sports for those with disabilities. I had never really given it much though, but assumed that Paralympics was a contraction of "paralysed" or "paraplegic" and "Olympics." Now that I have come to think more about it, and put into use the little Latin that I do know, I have realised that "para" means alongside, as in parallel. These games, more than any other, have made me realise that these athletes deserve to have as much coverage as able bodied athletes, if not more. They provide a great example of what canbe achieved if you just put your mind to it. Something that puts me to shame, although I am still too lazy to actually do anything about it.
These athletes truly deserve to be highlighted alongside other athletes and I can only apologise for my ignorance and lack of support in the past. Thank you for you superb example and your continued hard work.