Paralympic Ceremony celebrates spirit of Games

If you did not watch the Paralympic Opening Ceremony tonight then don’t read any further and instead watch the event tomorrow at 2pm when CTV air it. But if you did watch it on www.paralympicsport.TV or did not but have decided to not watch the replay tomorrow here is your review.

Overall I thought that everything was very good, but thankfully the Parade of Nations was very small compared to the Olympic one, because I had already grown tired of looking at the athletes march out. However, I could watch Team Canada’s entrance a million times and still not be satisfied. The roar that came out of BC Place when they walked out could definitely compete with the one that received our Olympic athletes. Sumi’s athletic leap was very impressive and when I first saw it I thought that he was free-falling until I realised what a stupid idea that was.

The amount of First Nations content was very small compared to the amount during the Olympics but there was still enough to ensure that the Four Host First Nations bands would be satisfied. After the Parade of Nations came a time of singing, dancing and other shows that impressed me, especially the first dance. In this dance the leader of the group, who only had movement in one of his legs, started doing break dance moves that most people couldn’t pull of with both legs. As usual there were plenty of kids dancing too because they bring the energy up for every single performance.

The Dal Richards Orchestra came out and played, the song being mainly focused on the pianist, who was having a great time pounding the keyboard. Some girl named Fifi did the next song but they really could have brought Avril Lavigne in again because this Lavigne wannabe was hard to listen to. What made up for it though was the skaters, bikers and the people on wheelchairs who were going off crazy jumps. People in the wheelchairs could actually go to a skateboard park, that’s a new one.

Next came another incredibly boring speech by VANOC Director John Furlong, who looked like he needed a good nights sleep. Obviously he forgot to take some French classes before the Olympics so it was lucky that his speech was mainly in English. Sir Phillip Craven, the head of the International Paralympic Committee, made a much better speech in my opinion by welcoming the native chiefs and then speaking in pretty good french for the rest, at least for a Brit, while he talked about the history of these magnificent Games. After the bigwigs stepped down it was time to bring back the party.

Yikki Yanofsky and a huge kids choir performed “we rise again” which I think hav been played by the Rankin Family before. If anyone knows, comment on it. There were a couple more performances and a performance dedicated to Rick Hanson and Terry Fox before the latter’s parents came out to light the flame. It was passed from torch to torch until an aspiring 13-year-old Paralympian got to light the cauldron. Unlike the Olympic version it went off without a hitch and the organisers will be pleased with that. There was also the usual renditions of “O Canada and the Paralympic anthem, which is a lot better than the Olympic one. Now that the Ceremonies are over, let the games begin!!!!

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