{"id":14433,"date":"2012-09-10T04:06:25","date_gmt":"2012-09-10T02:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/09\/paralympics-games-has-put-disabled-sport-firmly-on-map-says-coe\/"},"modified":"2012-09-10T04:06:25","modified_gmt":"2012-09-10T02:06:25","slug":"paralympics-games-has-put-disabled-sport-firmly-on-map-says-coe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/paralympics-games-has-put-disabled-sport-firmly-on-map-says-coe\/","title":{"rendered":"Paralympics-Games has put disabled sport firmly on map, says Coe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Tom Pilcher<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

LONDON, Sept 9<\/span> (Reuters) – The huge popularity of Paralympic
\nGames over the past 11 days shows that disabled sport is fast
\nbecoming recognised as elite competition, London Games chairman
\nSebastian Coe said on Sunday.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

An unprecedented 2.7 million tickets were snapped up for
\nnearly 45 million pounds ($72.12 million), exceeding 2012
\norganisers’ original target of 35 million.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“The research that is beginning to come through is showing
\nthat over 70 percent of people now regard the Paralympic Games
\nand the Paralympians as elite athletes,” the twice Olympic gold
\nmedallist told a news conference before the closing ceremony.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I think we’ve genuinely created a platform for their
\ntalents and disability sport. Two thirds of the population
\nfollowed the Games on television, three quarters followed on any
\nplatform, so print, TV radio, online.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

More than four billion people are estimated to have watched
\nthe London Games on television compared to 1.9 billion eight
\nyears ago in Athens.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“Three quarters of viewers are clear that what they’ve seen
\nhas exceeded their expectations,” added Coe.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Fans who were lucky enough to catch the action live were
\nmore than willing participants, even watching blind football
\nmatches in complete silence so as not to interfere with the
\non-pitch communication.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The feel-good factor that swept around the Olympic Park and
\nstadium over the course of the Paralympics underlined how much
\nattitudes have changed.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tom Pilcher LONDON, Sept 9 (Reuters) – The huge popularity of Paralympic Games over the past 11 days shows that disabled sport is fast becoming recognised as elite competition, London Games chairman Sebastian Coe said on Sunday. An unprecedented 2.7 million tickets were snapped up for nearly 45 million pounds ($72.12 million), exceeding 2012 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-14433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}