'Not Over Yet'... Opening of the '2020 Tokyo Paralympics' on the 24th

2020 Tokyo Paralympics Held for 13 Days from August 24 to September 5
Paralympics Contribute to Changing Perceptions of People with Disabilities
Terrestrial Broadcasters Yet to Announce Broadcast Plans... Contrast with Overseas

On the afternoon of July 29, at the Korea Disabled Sports Association Icheon Training Center in Icheon-si, Gyeonggi-do, participants including Kim Jeong-bae, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Jeong Jin-wan, President of the Korea Disabled Sports Association, Joo Won-hong, team leader, representative athletes, and coaches took a commemorative photo at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics South Korean delegation send-off ceremony. The Korea Disabled Sports Association is dispatching a delegation of 158 members across 14 sports, the largest ever for an overseas competition, including 86 athletes, 51 coaches, and 21 officials. [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoon Seul-gi] The festival is not over yet. From August 24 to September 5, the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics will be held in Tokyo, Japan, following the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, lasting for 13 days.

The Paralympics is a compound word combining 'Para' from 'Paraplegia' (spinal cord injury such as lower body paralysis requiring a wheelchair) and 'lympics' from 'Olympics.' It originally started as a competition for athletes with spinal cord injuries (paraplegics), but as athletes with other disabilities began to participate, the meaning of 'Para,' which means 'beside' or 'alongside,' expanded to signify that the Paralympics are held alongside the Olympics. The Paralympics are held every four years, just like the Olympics, and begin after the Olympics conclude.

The Paralympics began in 1960 in Rome, Italy. At the 17th Summer Olympics in Rome, the Rome Paralympics were held afterward, with 209 athletes from 17 countries participating. South Korea's first Paralympics was held in 1968 in Mexico City.

In this Tokyo Paralympics, badminton and taekwondo have been adopted as official events. Approximately 4,400 athletes from 181 countries are expected to participate, competing in 22 sports with a total of 539 gold medals awaiting winners. South Korea plans to send a national team of 158 athletes with disabilities, consisting of 86 athletes and 72 support staff, participating in about 10 sports including archery and athletics.

At the opening ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics held on July 23 at the National Stadium in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, a Paralympic gold medalist is carrying the torch. [Image source=Yonhap News]

The Paralympics, like the Olympics, is a festival for people worldwide. Moreover, it holds special social significance as a sporting event that leads to changes in societal perceptions of people with disabilities, who are often marginalized. By showing how athletes overcome disadvantages compared to non-disabled people through sweat and effort, it greatly influences improving awareness of disabilities.

However, it is expected that watching the Paralympics through broadcasts will not be easy. The three terrestrial broadcasters holding the Paralympic broadcasting rights have yet to announce their broadcasting plans. This contrasts with overseas broadcasters who have already announced their Paralympic coverage policies.

This Paralympic marginalization is not new. Even at the highly regarded 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Paralympics, there were opinions expressing regret over the short broadcast time. Looking at overseas Paralympic broadcast hours at that time, France's FT aired about 100 hours, the United States' NBC about 94 hours, and Japan's NHK about 62 hours. In comparison, South Korea's KBS broadcast 41 hours, SBS 32 hours, and MBC 18 hours, which was a modest amount compared to overseas.

Just as Olympic athletes endured hardships such as the one-year postponement of the games due to COVID-19 and still worked hard for the Olympics, athletes participating in the Paralympics faced similar difficulties. This is why there are calls for active broadcasting efforts so that their sweat and efforts do not go unnoticed.

An official from the Korea Paralympic Committee said, "'Paralympic marginalization' has been a recurring issue for several years," adding, "Although it has improved compared to before, there are still difficulties in broadcasting and coverage due to less public interest compared to the Olympics." He continued, "For the Olympics, portal sites create special sites organizing athlete profiles and competition schedules, but for the Paralympics, promotion is done through a site produced internally by the committee," expressing the challenges in promoting the Paralympics.

He added, "We hope that the broadcasting of this Tokyo Paralympics will be scheduled extensively so that the efforts of Paralympic athletes can shine."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.