Thirty-eight days of celebration came to an end tonight as the Paralympic Opening Ceremony was held in the Whistler Medals Plaza. The predicted rain stayed away and plenty of people came out to celebrate what has been a very fun week of Paralympic sport and it’s triumphs. We saw Chantal Kreviazuk perform and a very interesting performance by throat singer Tanya Tagaq, a native of the Canadian territory of Nunavut who did this while a disabled athlete was getting bounced around on a huge blanket of animal skin which was hard for him because he had no use of his legs.
Sochi’s organisers planned another sample of what to expect in 2014 with a musical performance and a show of beauty by disabled and able-bodied figure skaters. Sochi had also followed Vancouver’s example by allowing a group of Russian kids to sing the amazing but long national anthem of that country while the Paralympic flag was getting passed to the mayor of Sochi from the mayors of Vancouver (Gregor Robinson) and Whistler (Ken Melamed). John Furlong made another speech but mainly stuck to english which was a relief, and Paralympic Committee President Sir Philip Craven’s speech was better mainly because he mentioned the entire world’s accomplishments instead of sticking to Canadian patriotism like Furlong did.
The best part was at the end when a group of Canadian kids that had been part of the dance crew took the Paralympic Torch over to the Russian kids, which really embodies the true spirit of the Games and like Rick Hansen said in an interview with CTV’s Brian Williams before the Ceremony, “this is only the beginning of what will be a truly remarkable time for the spirit of sport around the world.”
