Saturday, September 13, 2008
Bejing 2008 Paralympics
"The 2008 Paralympics have opened with another spectacular ceremony in Beijing!" Yes, if U haven't known, the Beijing 2008 Paralympics was officially launched last Saturday, 6th September 2008. The ceremony marked the beginning of 11 days of competition for more than 4,200 "these abled" athletes from 148 countries. This is, by far, the largest number of nations to take part in the Paralympics. The slogan for this year's Paralympics is the same as the Olympics, which is, "One World, One Dream". The opening ceremony was indeed spectacular as thousands of cheerleaders and dancers performed different items amid a bombardment of colourful fireworks. The mascot this year is a cartoon cow named Fu Niu Lele which roughly means "Lucky Ox 'Happy'". The design of Fu Niu Lele derives its inspiration from the farming cultivation culture of ancient Chinese civilization, and bears the following salient features:
*Showing the rich concept of the Beijing Paralympic Games *Embodying the harmony between man and nature *Carrying rich national style and cultural features *Cows are widely accepted internationally & *Commanding space for future designs and marketing Athletes in the 2008 Paralympics will be competing in 20 sports, namely: *Archery *Athletics *Boccia *Cycling *Equestrian *Football 5-a-side *Football 7-a-side *Goalball *Judo *Powerlifting *Rowing *Sailing *Shooting *Swimming *Table tennis *Volleyball *Wheelchair basketball *Wheelchair fencing *Wheelchair rugby & *Wheelchair tennis
 Singapore will be represented by 6 athletes competing in four sports: swimming, sailing, equestrian and athletics. The country's flagbearer at the Games' opening ceremony was supposed to be Desiree Lim, a sailor. However, as the sailing events were held in Qingdao, it was Theresa Goh (swimmer) who took over the flagbearing on the opening ceremony.   So far, Laurentia Tan has made Singapore proud by winning 2 Bronze Award in the Equestrian Individual Championship Test Grade 1A & Individual Freestyle Test Grade 1A. Kudos to her! :) Oh by the way, the medals for the Paralympics is also similar to that of the Olympics. P/S: Hmmm... everything is too similar, no? I think Beijing didn't have enough time to create everything from scratch since the time difference between Oympics & Paralympics is too short... Hehe!Regards,Niz
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