London Paralympics start

要約

The London 2012 Paralympics start Aug. 30 (Aug. 29 local time) with some 4,300 physically disabled athletes from 166 countries and regions taking part in 20 sports. From Japan, 135 athletes will participate in 17 sports.
This year’s Paralympics are historically significant because the origin of the Paralympics is said to go back to a sports event in 1948 in the London suburbs in which World War II veterans competed. The London Paralympics will serve as a chance for athletes, team officials and spectators to appreciate the spirit of the Paralympics. It is hoped that the London event will lead to more efforts to enlarge the participation and enjoyment of people with physical disabilities in sports at the grass-roots level.
The Olympics and the Paralympics are becoming fused. The same organizing committee started managing the Olympics and the Paralympics from the Beijing games in 2008. In London, the Paralympic athletes will stay in the athletes’ village that was used for the London Olympics, They will eat in the same large facility used during the Olympic Summer Games and the meals will be the same as during the Olympics.
In the ceremony to mark the participants’ entering the athletes’ village, they were welcomed by singing and dance performances to the accompaniment of the same British rock band that played at the time of the London Olympics.
These days, some disabled athletes take part in the Olympics and the Paralympics. The competitive skills of top athletes with disabilities are improving. But care must be taken so that the participation in the Paralympics will not be limited to elite athletes. At the grass-roots level, more efforts must be made to make sports facilities more convenient to people with physical disabilities.
To increase their skills, some disabled Japanese athletes go abroad to be coached by athletes without physical disabilities who participated in the Olympic Games. It is hoped that more chances will crop up for Paralympic athletes to get advice from their Olympic counterparts and that they will encourage each other.

日本語の抄訳はウィークリ9月8日号のP18に掲載されています。