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| Location | Beijing, China |
|---|---|
| Motto | One World, One Dream (Chinese: 同一个世界 同一个梦想 pinyin: Tóng yīge shìjìe tóng yīge mèngxiǎng) |
| Nations | 146 |
| Athletes | 3,951 |
| Events | 472 in 20sports |
| Opening | 6 September 2008 |
| Closing | 17 September 2008 |
| Opened by | |
| Closed by | |
| Cauldron | |
| Stadium | Beijing National Stadium |
Summer Winter 2008 Summer Olympics | |
The2008 Summer Paralympic Games (Chinese:2008年夏季残疾人奥林匹克运动会;pinyin:2008 Nián Xiàjì Cánjí Rén Àolínpǐkè Yùndònghuì), the 13thSummer Paralympic Games, took place inBeijing, China, from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events inQingdao. It was first time the newParalympic logo featured in the Summer Paralympics since its rebranding after the2004 Summer Paralympics.
3,951 athletes from 146 countries took part,[1] the largest number of nations ever (ten more than the2004 Games in Athens). Five countriescompeted for the first time.[2] As host country, China fielded moreathletes than any other country. The slogan for the 2008 Paralympics was the same as the2008 Summer Olympics, "One World, One Dream" (simplified Chinese:同一个世界 同一个梦想;traditional Chinese:同一個世界 同一個夢想PinyinTóng 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.[1] International Paralympic Committee (IPC) PresidentPhilip Craven declared the Games "the greatest Paralympic Games ever."[3]
Beijing was selected to host the2022 Winter Paralympics, making it the first city to host both Summer and Winter Games.
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| 2008 Summer Paralympics |
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Nineteen competition venues were selected—seventeen in Beijing, one in Hong Kong, and one inQingdao.[4]
The Games's emblem, "Sky, Earth, and Human Beings" (Chinese:天、地、人), was unveiled in July 2004, a multicolored Chinese character "之" (Chinese:zhī) stylized as an athletic figure in motion. Its red, blue and green colors represent sun, sky and earth.[5]
The slogan was the same as the2008 Summer Olympics, "One World, One Dream".
The mascot was a cartoon cow namedFu Niu Lele (Chinese:福牛乐乐), roughly meaning "Lucky Ox 'Happy'".[6]
The theme song was"Flying with the Dream"Chinese:和梦一起飞.[7] It was performed by Chinese-Tibetan singerHan Hong and Hong Kong singer and actorAndy Lau.
The torch relay of the2008 Summer Paralympics started fromTian Tan (Temple of Heaven) on August 28. The flame then gathered beforeThe 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 theNational Stadium during the Opening Ceremony on September 6.
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 ofOde to Joy.[8] Following a countdown, afireworks display signalled the beginning of the ceremony proper. Thenational flag of China was then raised, in accordance with usual protocol, and thenational anthem of China performed.[8] Performers wearing suits in bright colours paraded round the stadium, as a welcoming ceremony preceding the athletes' entry.[8] As with the2008 Summer Olympics, 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 toStoke Mandeville rather thanOlympia; 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 names.[9] Countries with the same number of strokes in the first character are sorted by those of the next character. This madeGuinea (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".[8] Thesunbird 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".[8] The ceremony concludes withHou 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 ofBeijing National Stadium, where he lit the cauldron to mark the beginning of the Games.[10]
The 2008 Summer Paralympics closing ceremony was held at theBeijing National Stadium. It began at 8:00 pmChina Standard Time (UTC+8) on September 17, 2008.[11]
The programme of the 2008 Summer Paralympics featured events in 20 sports.[12] The number of events in each sport is noted in parentheses.
.svg)
Archery(9) (details).svg)
Athletics(160) (details).svg)
Boccia(7) (details)_pictogram_(Paralympics).svg)
Paralympic cycling (details)
Equestrian(11) (details).svg)
Football 5-a-side(1) (details).svg)
Football 7-a-side(1) (details).svg)
Goalball(2) (details)
Judo(13) (details).svg)
Powerlifting(20) (details)
Rowing(4) (details)
Sailing(3) (details).svg)
Shooting(12) (details).svg)
Swimming(140) (details)
Table tennis(24) (details).svg)
Volleyball(2) (details).svg)
Wheelchair basketball(2) (details).svg)
Wheelchair fencing(10) (details).svg)
Wheelchair rugby(1) (details).svg)
Wheelchair tennis(6) (details)Rowing made its first appearance in the Paralympics at these games.
| ● | Opening ceremony | ● | Event competitions | ● | Gold medal events | ● | Closing ceremony |
| September | 6th Sat | 7th Sun | 8th Mon | 9th Tue | 10th Wed | 11th Thu | 12th Fri | 13th Sat | 14th Sun | 15th Mon | 16th Tue | 17th Wed | Events | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ceremonies | OC | CC | — | |||||||||||
| Archery | ● | ● | ● | ● | 4 | 3 | 2 | 9 | ||||||
| Athletics | 10 | 20 | 17 | 10 | 16 | 20 | 18 | 19 | 25 | 5 | 160 | |||
| Boccia | ● | ● | 4 | ● | ● | 3 | 7 | |||||||
| Cycling | Road cycling | 15 | 4 | 4 | 46 | |||||||||
_pictogram_(Paralympics).svg) Track cycling | 5 | 7 | 7 | 4 | ||||||||||
| Equestrian | ● | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 11 | ||||||||
| Football | 5-a-side | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 7-a-side | ● | ● | ● | ● | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Goalball | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 2 | 2 | |||||
.svg) Judo | 4 | 4 | 5 | 13 | ||||||||||
| Powerlifting | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 20 | ||||||
.svg) Rowing | ● | ● | 4 | 4 | ||||||||||
| Sailing | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 3 | 3 | |||||||
| Shooting | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 12 | |||||||
| Swimming | 16 | 18 | 16 | 12 | 13 | 16 | 14 | 18 | 17 | 140 | ||||
.svg) Table tennis | ● | ● | ● | 5 | 11 | ● | ● | ● | 4 | 4 | 24 | |||
| Volleyball | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Wheelchair basketball | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| Wheelchair fencing | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 10 | |||||||||
| Wheelchair rugby | ● | ● | ● | ● | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Wheelchair tennis | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 | |||||
| Daily medal events | 27 | 41 | 61 | 46 | 45 | 52 | 49 | 56 | 51 | 36 | 8 | 472 | ||
| Cumulative total | 27 | 68 | 129 | 175 | 220 | 272 | 321 | 377 | 428 | 464 | 472 | |||
| September | 6th Sat | 7th Sun | 8th Mon | 9th Tue | 10th Wed | 11th Thu | 12th Fri | 13th Sat | 14th Sun | 15th Mon | 16th Tue | 17th Wed | Events | |
The followingNational Paralympic Committees sent delegations to compete.[13]Macau and theFaroe Islands are members of theInternational Paralympic Committee, but not of theInternational Olympic Committee; hence they participate in the Paralympic Games but not in the Olympics.
Burundi,Gabon,Georgia,Haiti andMontenegro participated in the Paralympics for the first time.[1]
Botswana was due to take part, but its single athlete, defending Paralympic champion sprinterTshotlego 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.[14]
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.
* Host nation (Host nation (China))
| Rank | NPC | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  China (CHN)* | 89 | 70 | 52 | 211 |
| 2 |  Great Britain (GBR) | 42 | 29 | 31 | 102 |
| 3 |  United States (USA) | 36 | 35 | 28 | 99 |
| 4 |  Ukraine (UKR) | 24 | 18 | 32 | 74 |
| 5 |  Australia (AUS) | 23 | 29 | 27 | 79 |
| 6 |  South Africa (RSA) | 21 | 3 | 6 | 30 |
| 7 |  Canada (CAN) | 19 | 10 | 21 | 50 |
| 8 |  Russia (RUS) | 18 | 23 | 22 | 63 |
| 9 |  Brazil (BRA) | 16 | 14 | 17 | 47 |
| 10 |  Spain (ESP) | 15 | 21 | 22 | 58 |
| 11–76 | Remaining NPCs | 170 | 219 | 229 | 618 |
| Totals (76 entries) | 473 | 471 | 487 | 1,431 | |
Australia –ABC1 andABC2. Brazil –SporTV2 andTerra Networks. Canada –Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) inEnglish andSociété Radio Canada (SRC) inFrench. China –Chinese Central Television (CCTV) provided coverage onCCTV-1 (opening andclosing ceremony),CCTV-5 andCCTV-7 as alldirect live telecast transmission.
France –Eurosport
Japan –NHK'sNHK General TV provided coverage onJOAK-1
Azerbaijan –AZTV
Norway –NRK
Sweden –Sveriges Television
Turkey –TRT United States –Universal Sports United Kingdom –BBC provided coverage onBBC Television'sBBC One.In France, following the Games,Philippe Juvin, national secretary of the governingUnion for a Popular Movement, accused national public television networkFrance 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 forslander.[16][17]
| Preceded by | Summer Paralympics Beijing XIII Paralympic Summer Games (2008) | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
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