Paralympics open with acrobats, clowns, vibrant music and fireworks

“The stigma attached to disability changes when you watch the sport,” said Craig Spence, a spokesman for the International Paralympic Committee. “These games will change your attitude toward disability.

“If you look around Japan, it’s very rare you see persons with disabilities on the street," Spence added. "We’ve got to go from protecting people to empowering people and creating opportunities for people to flourish in society.”

That's why I support this Paralympics.

All respect can be paid to the Paralympians. None to Suga the IOC and hangers ons. Conflating them is such obvious shillery. No respect for Hashimoto, Bach et al. 頑張れfor the Paralympians.

And to those that refuse to watch and support this powerful example of human resilience, that's your loss.

Nice virtue signalling. "If you don't watch the paralympics, you hate disabled people".

I didn't watch a single moment of the main games. Does that mean I hate the able-bodied?

Great to see the Paralympians getting the chance to fulfill their dreams. Also wonderful to see the opening ceremony had such good vibes.

Let the games begin!

Compared to the bland and incoherent Olympics ceremonies, this Paralympics opening was much more impressive. The "We have wings" message was clearly demonstrated with a solid storyline throughout the show.

Hooray to all the performers today and the competing athletes from tomorrow!

Olympic ceremonies are artistically tough. Paralympic ones tougher. Then throw in a pandemic.

It was genuinely impressive and imaginative. Real skills on show. The one-winged plane was very creative. Looking forward to seeing the sport.

A lot of people feel uncomfortable just seeing physical disability. More so in countries where the disabled have less public presence. It may be conditioned, it may be hard-wired into us. Watch some of the sport, lose that discomfort, see the athlete past the disability, and respect the person who is the athlete.

Let's all forget the politics for two weeks and get behind these games for the good of all our Japanese friends who every day must face unspeakable difficulties just because they are living with a disability. These games can and will make some kids life better and for this reason I'm prepared to put my opposition against this government aside, for two weeks. I did not support the Olympics, but I fiercely support the Paralympics !

The Paralympics are about athletic prowess. The origin of the word is from "parallel" - an event running alongside the Olympics.

This statement is disingenuous. Originally the Paralympics were for paraplegics. Only from 1976 were athletes with other disabilities included. Para originally comes from paraplegia, not parallel, snd only from 1988 has the para been attributed to the word parallel.

And to those that refuse to watch and support this powerful example of human resilience, that's your loss.

And what about disabled people who don't watch because they don't particularly like sports? I'm all for increasing opportunities for disabled people to have a better life. But the paralympics is not for everyone.

Thank your @Dr.CajetanCoelho for your ever-present encouragement to ALL the athletes of both the Olympic and the Paralympic Games. - Please continue. - Many ARE reading this site.

“Congratulations!” to the Australian cyclists and getting the first Paralympic GOLD !!

“For the moment we don’t see the correlation between having the Paralympics in Tokyo with the rising number of cases in Tokyo and Japan,” Parsons told The Associated Press.

That’s what I would say too if there were plenty of money coming my way

Since last year, many domestic traditional fireworks events had been cancelled in whole Japan one after another under the name of preventing infection.

But Japan's government treats opening and closing ceremony of Olympics and Paralympics as exception, it made many crowd, and cause infection spreading.

Besides, many exception and unfair about Olympics or Paralympics have loosened caution or tension among Japanese general public to corona virus infection.

Watching athletes overcoming disabilities is a win-win experience for the athlete and for the audience. "The stigma attached to disability changes when you watch the sport. These games will change your attitude toward disability. We've got to go from protecting people to empowering people and creating opportunities for people to flourish in society" - Craig Spence.

Well done! Good vibes. And the IOC representative is a MUCH better speaker than Bach.

If you don’t see the handicapped all around you in Japan then you are handicapped as well ! Physically blind or mentally incapacitated.

They are everywhere and I engage with them all the time.

Was to much circus atmosphere. I couldn’t enjoy it.

That said, I’m a big fan of the Paralympics and special Olympics

albaleoToday  04:13 pm JST

And to those that refuse to watch and support this powerful example of human resilience, that's your loss.

And what about disabled people who don't watch because they don't particularly like sports? I'm all for increasing opportunities for disabled people to have a better life. But the paralympics is not for everyone.

Same applies. it's their loss to miss such a historical event. Why, should it be different?

O'BrienToday  10:12 am JST

And to those that refuse to watch and support this powerful example of human resilience, that's your loss.

Nice virtue signalling. "If you don't watch the paralympics, you hate disabled people".

I didn't watch a single moment of the main games. Does that mean I hate the able-bodied?

Always good to know I'm never alone as long as O'Brien as a wifi connection!

As usual, over you're analyzing,

Totally spot on with the headings - clowns, a big circus!

Interesting reading the usual whiners struggling to comment on the Paralympics, treading carefully with their criticism.

Just appreciate the work and effort from both the athletes and the organizers to make this happen. For many it is their dream to have this event and they have been living under the threat of having it taken away from them.

And to those that refuse to watch and support this powerful example of human resilience, that's your loss.

And now 8 prefectures under SOE and Kagawa is completely locked down. How many Covid-related deaths in Kagawa over the last seven days? ZERO.