Paralympics Stories: Towards the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games

【Part1】Paralypians Breaking the Barriers

Abstract

There is less than one year to go before the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Since 2016, the NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute has been researching the Paralympics and its broadcast coverage. In the process we have interviewed various people involved in overseas Paralympic coverage, all of whom mentioned the Paralympic Games and Paralympic broadcasts had changed society and individuals in a positive way. Their views from different standpoints are reported in this four-part series. The first part features three Paralympians from the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Germany. Claire Cashmore is a British Triathlon athlete. She acknowledged that the London 2012 Paralympic Games, which was held in her home country, had triggered a change in British public perception on persons with an impairment, and talked about her hope for children who would bear the next generation. Danish table tennis player Peter Rosenmeier commended that Paralympic broadcasts had helped raise awareness on para sports, but he also pointed out that although Paralympic coverage had opened up more opportunities for persons with an impairment to appear on general programmes on TV, he found it not enough. Matthias Berg represented Germany in athletics and alpine skiing. He talked about the significance of the Paralympics where everyone can compete with each other equally if certain conditions and environment are provided and referred to the importance of para athletes’ telling their own stories of how they had overcome the barriers as well as his expectations for television’s roles in making society more open for persons with an impairment.