| Host City: | 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 20 sports |
| Opening: | 6 September |
| Closing: | 17 September |
| Opened By: | President Hu Jintao |
| Cauldron: | Hou Bin |
| Stadium: | Beijing National Stadium |
| Summer Prev: | Athens 2004 |
| Summer Next: | London 2012 |
| Winter Prev: | Turin 2006 |
| Winter Next: | Vancouver 2010 |
The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games, the 13th Summer Paralympic Games, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao. It was first time the new Paralympic logo featured in the Summer Paralympics since its rebranding after the 2004 Summer Paralympics.
3,951 athletes from 146 countries took part,[1] the largest number of nations ever (ten more than the 2004 Games in Athens). Five countries competed for the first time.[2] As host country, China fielded more athletes than any other country. The slogan for the 2008 Paralympics was the same as the 2008 Summer Olympics, "One World, One Dream" (Pinyin Tóng 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. International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Philip Craven declared the Games "the greatest Paralympic Games ever."[3]
Beijing was selected to host the 2022 Winter Paralympics, making it the first city to host both Summer and Winter Games.
See main article: 2008 Summer Olympics venues and Olympic Green.
Nineteen competition venues were selected—seventeen in Beijing, one in Hong Kong, and one in Qingdao.[4]
The Games's emblem, "Sky, Earth, and Human Beings", was unveiled in July 2004, a multicolored Chinese character "之" 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 the 2008 Summer Olympics, "One World, One Dream".
The mascot was a cartoon cow named Fu Niu Lele, roughly meaning "Lucky Ox 'Happy'".[6]
The theme song was "Flying with the Dream" .[7] It was performed by Chinese-Tibetan singer Han Hong and Hong Kong singer and actor Andy Lau.
See main article: 2008 Summer Paralympics torch relay. The torch relay of the 2008 Summer Paralympics started from Tian Tan (Temple of Heaven) on August 28. The flame then gathered before The 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 the National Stadium during the Opening Ceremony on September 6.
See main article: 2008 Summer Paralympics opening ceremony and 2008 Summer Paralympics national flag bearers. 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 of Ode to Joy.[8] Following a countdown, a fireworks display signalled the beginning of the ceremony proper. The national flag of China was then raised, in accordance with usual protocol, and the national 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 the 2008 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 to Stoke Mandeville rather than Olympia; 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 made Guinea (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] The sunbird 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 with Hou 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 of Beijing National Stadium, where he lit the cauldron to mark the beginning of the Games.[10]
See main article: 2008 Summer Paralympics closing ceremony. The 2008 Summer Paralympics closing ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium. It began at 8:00 pm China Standard Time (UTC+8) on September 17, 2008.[11]
Twenty sports were on the program:
Rowing made its first appearance in the Paralympics at these games.
The following National Paralympic Committees sent delegations to compete.[12] Macau and the Faroe Islands are members of the International Paralympic Committee, but not of the International Olympic Committee; hence they participate in the Paralympic Games but not in the Olympics.
Burundi, Gabon, Georgia, Haiti and Montenegro participated in the Paralympics for the first time.
Botswana was due to take part, but its single athlete, defending Paralympic champion sprinter Tshotlego 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.[13]
See main article: 2008 Summer Paralympics medal table.
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.
See main article: 2008 Summer Paralympics highlights.
– ABC1 and ABC2.
– SporTV2 and Terra Networks.
– Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in English and Société Radio Canada (SRC) in French.
– Eurosport
– NHK's NHK General TV provided coverage on JOAK-1
– AZTV
– NRK
– Sveriges Television
– TRT
– BBC provided coverage on BBC Television's BBC One.In France, following the Games, Philippe Juvin, national secretary of the governing Union for a Popular Movement, accused national public television network France 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 for slander.[14] [15]