The Olympics are over and despite the hangover in the city the preparations are already on for the Paralympics. Niu Niu or whatever the little ox mascot is called is replacing the 5 "Fuwas" of the Olympics at breakneck speed, on the buildings around Wangfujin, in the China Bank outlets and at the hotels where the delegations will be staying. Even the Adidas stores, the temples of these games have swaped the designs for the Paralympic versions.
For us it is an opportunity to go to some of the venues that we hadn't been to before like the paparazzied "Cube" and take our friends Ethel and Jorge on a tour of the Olympic Green.
We have abused it. We have tickets to Wheelchair basketball and Athletics on Saturday, Tennis on Sunday and Wheelchair Fencing, Wheelchair Archery and Swimming on the Monday.
These games are definitely the China Games. Even more so than the Olympics. Gone is the order and the tidiness. It is one big mass of people pushing through for everything. These are the real people's games. Shoving through endless queues, battling for seats, shoving through teh crowds in the Olympic Green. Actually, there was a blatant disregard of making the spectator experience a special one. But these where also different from the summer Olympics in other more subtle ways. There is more sporting feeling I guess. More backing up of all the athletes. The summer Olympics pump the adrenalin, the Paralympics engage the heart.
It also without question the most formidable display of the human spirit. After a while you even forget that they have handicaps. I certainly forgot at tennis. It was fabulous. Fast, competitive and fun. The only difference being that the players were in wheelchairs and had to let the ball bounce twice.
For sure the Paralympics are not the same as the Summer Olympics but they probably are the ones that best embody the spirit of fair play, solidarity and friendship of the Olympic movement.
The electricity in the air was lesser but the participation, a kind of accessibility to the larger number was stronger.
I have now become a confirmed Olympic junkie.
