Let the Games begin!!

Yes, it has begun.
The sad part is the Paralympics do not get the same attention as the Olympics. The energy, the passion of sport and the competitiveness is not different yet many people at home still ask me "Why are you going to Rio" Aren't the Games over?". No they are not....they are just beginning.

Opening ceremonies took place last night and it sounds like they were a blast. Since we are marching as delegations behind our flag bearer, David Eng, we have to get organized early and get all positioned outside the stadium. There's no television feed as we are all sitting in Portuguese alphabetical order to enter the stadium. Since the parade of athletes starts around 6:30 , we left the Village at 2!. 1 hour bus ride to an area across the street from the stadium then everybody walks across a bridge then to our designated area and.....we wait.

First we had to get into our Opening Ceremony outfit. There's a big love/hate relationship with this outfit. I suspect not many people will wear it when at home. It does look kinda cool as a group but individually, not very practical.

Looking pretty good

Me and my friends

My other friends. The wheelchair basketball team

We were pretty hot with the temperature hitting high twenties and humid. The jackets didn't breathe very well. After much fanfare, we hit the buses and off to the stadium we went. The women WCBB team didn't go as they had their first game at 9:30 the next morning, or today. Since transport to the gym is at 7:40, team breakfast was at 7. The Opening Ceremonies finish around 10 or so, by the time we get more than 4000 athletes back in buses to the Village....it makes it a very late and tiring day. Not worth it for the competitors. It was the same stories with swimming, cycling and athletics. We had about 100 athletes and staff not marching in. This should answer everybody's question regarding why our team looked so small.

Team breakfast

Getting our "dinner" bag as we arrive at the stadium

As we will be there for a while, we all get a brown bag for dinner. It was very simple but at least it was food. Then, after the usual pictures, selfies and team pics, we get bored. Then we start checking out other countries' outfits. A few of us started a hat hunt. We should have extended our search as we noticed, as we started marching, that many other countries were closer than we thought and had great hats!

Chile

Afghanistan

Aruba

Benin

Cape Verde, with the World Champion javelin thrower

Maybe another hat hunt will take place at closing ceremonies...Canada was close to the start since it is still spelled with a "C" in Portuguese. Marching is a big rush. I cannot explain the sentiment. Even if we are not the "real reason" we march as non-competitors and support staff, it is still a moment of pride to represent Canada. As we get closer, we then enter the tunnel, the cheers start and then we enter. It is when they announce the name that the crowd's cheers really kick in. The loudest is, of course, when the Crowd even witnesses the Brazilian flag starting to come out of the tunnel. The roar is deafening! The host city comes in last. There were 146 countries so the parade seems endless as we sit and comment on the outfits of different countries, who looks good and who we think doesn't. Also which piece of clothing is nice for trades.....the German jacket got a lot of attention.

Behind our flag as we inch around the outside of the stadium

The part of the show we saw was very good. I was impressed with the children with evident disabilities being the Paralympic Flag bearers with attachments allowing adults to bring them in walking. The face of these kids was priceless! What a great idea.

Then, as the flame came in, the rain came down. A downpour of biblical proportion fell. The organizing committee seems to have known something was going to happen as they had positioned many boxes full of small plastic ponchos distributed urgently to all delegations as we were in the uncovered part of the open stadium. We hung out in the downpour to see the flame get lit...then I ran for the buses. I managed, through big crowds of athletes, to get myself out of there surprisingly fast. I was back in the Village and in bed by 11:30. Some didn't get back to the Village until 1 in the morning!

This morning was our first game. Great Britain (GB) who historically doesn't have a great team but are getting much better. In fact, they have beaten our team every time they met this year in friendly tournaments. The reason...quality recruiting and training matched with the highest sports' directed budget in Europe. GB is pouring money in sports. Their goal is to dominate in WCBB, and other sports for sure, at the Tokyo games in 2020. They already show their strength in cycling as some of their qualifying rides at the track were world records this morning!

Winning against GB is crucial as they are in our pool which includes Germany, another powerhouse. If we start with a loss, it increases the stress of the game against the Germans in 3 days. It was not the best display of offence as the players missed so many shots (that they would normally make). The power of their defence allowed them to make the Brits miss even more. Canada won 43-36. This is very positive. Now they get tomorrow off and meet Argentina in 2 days. They don't get to rest too much as we are heading for practice in just over an hour...5:45 - 7:15 pm.

So I came back to the Village after staying back with one of our athletes selected for random antidoping. Since she couldn't produce enough ...we had to wait for a while. Had a quick lunch when I got back to the Village then hit the clinic to see if any work was needed. So far it's quiet - from a medical point of view. It's very busy from a physio, massage, rehab point of view as the therapy staff are always getting stuff done.

So for now, I take off to the next practice. Since I am also covering the men's goalball team and they practice right next door to the WCBB practice court at the same time, I can cover both. Perfect!

By the way, please visit the Canadian Paralympic Committee website for daily fantastic photos!!

http://cdnparalympics.photoshelter.com/gallery-collection/Rio-2016/C0000rnLwmT1DklA


A bientot