IPC president Craven hails big and better Paralympic Games in Beijing
17/9/2008 17:26
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) president Philip Craven today
lauded the Beijing Paralympics for its quantity and quality.
Craven said he
had been receiving very positive feedbacks.
"These games have been great
games. I think everybody realizes that," said Craven at a press conference in
the Main Press Center prior to the closing ceremony. "I just have breakfast at
the Swiss Hotel and the people have just been coming up and saying
congratulations or giving me the thumbs up or all sorts positive."
"There has
been positive feedback from everyone I have spoken to," he said.
Craven said
the Beijing Paralympics in the Chinese capital attracted historic high media
coverage and attention from around the world and more athletes competed in
Beijing than ever.
"We had more media than ever before, more broadcast than
ever before and IPC Youtube channels had 1.1 million visitors during Games time
and will have more to come of course with it not yet finished," said
Craven.
Five thousand five hunderd journalists worldwide reported the Sept.
6-17 Games and there were more than 1,100 hours of broadcast coverage. The IPC
also launched two online TV channels www.ParalympicSport.TV and
www.youtube.com/paralympicsporttv, offering fans free Games videos up to eight
hours per day.
The Athens Paralympics four years ago attracted more than
3,000 journalists and saw 617 hours of broadcast coverage.
Craven was also
proud of the record-high number of athletes participating.
There have been
4,032 athletes from 147 countries and regions competing in 20 sports at the
Games while Athens had 3,806 athletes from 136 delegations took part in 19
sports.
High attendance rate was another source of satisfaction for Craven as
the former wheelchair basketball player was happy to see that fans filled the
landmark National Stadium "Bird's Nest" to watch Paralympic sports.
"When the
Chinese athletes came by in the T11 5,000 meters earlier in the Games, 90,000 in
the stadium, and as he pasted, the roof went off the stadium. I mean, what more
do you want?" he said.
Zhang Zhen won the men's T11 5,000 meters race in the
packed Bird's Nest on Sept. 9.
BOCOG, the organizers for the Beijing Olympics
and Paralympics, said the competitions were watched by over one million
spectators.
"Up to date, a total of 1,292,000 tickets have been sold to the
public," said BOCOG spokesperson Wang Wei.
And nine of 11 competition
sessions yesterday receive nearly capacity spectators, he added.
Xinhua
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