2008 Summer Paralympics

Nineteen competition venues were selected—seventeen in Beijing, one in Hong Kong, and one in Qingdao.^[4]

1. Beijing National Stadium (Bird Nest) - Athletics, Opening and closing ceremonies
2. Beijing National Aquatics Center (Water Cube) - Swimming
3. Beijing National Indoor Stadium (Fan) - Wheelchair basketball
4. Fencing Gymnasium of Olympic Green Convention Centre - Boccia, Wheelchair fencing
5. Olympic Green Archery Field - Archery
6. Olympic Green Hockey Field - Football 5-a-side, Football 7-a-side
7. Olympic Green Tennis Centre (Flowers) - Wheelchair tennis
8. Peking University Gymnasium - Table tennis
9. Beihang University Gymnasium - Powerlifting
10. China Agricultural University Gymnasium - Sitting volleyball
11. Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium - Wheelchair rugby
12. Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium - Goalball
13. Beijing Shooting Range Hall - Shooting
14. Laoshan Velodrome - Cycling (track)
15. Workers Gymnasium - Judo
16. Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park - Rowing
17. Triathlon Venue - Cycling (road)
18. Hong Kong Equestrian Venues - Equestrian
19. Qingdao International Sailing Centre - Sailing

The Games's emblem, "Sky, Earth, and Human Beings" (Chinese: 天、地、人), was unveiled in July 2004, a multicolored Chinese character『之』(Chinese: zhī) stylized as an athletic figure in motion. Its red, blue and green colors represent sun, sky and earth.^[5]

The slogan was the same as the 2008 Summer Olympics, "One World, One Dream".

The mascot was a cartoon cow named Fu Niu Lele (Chinese: 福牛乐乐), roughly meaning "Lucky Ox 'Happy'".^[6]

The theme song was "Flying with the Dream" Chinese: 和梦一起飞.^[7] It was performed by Chinese-Tibetan singer Han Hong and Hong Kong singer and actor Andy Lau.

The torch relay of the 2008 Summer Paralympics started from Tian Tan (Temple of Heaven) on August 28. The flame then gathered before The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests (祈年殿) and followed two routes (the "Route of Ancient China" and the "Route of Modern China"). Both routes returned to Beijing on September 5, and the torch was flamed at the National Stadium during the Opening Ceremony on September 6.

The opening ceremony took place on September 6, 2008. The pre-ceremony performance was a succession of various musical performances, ranging from military music to folk music and a performance of Ode to Joy.^[8] Following a countdown, a fireworks display signalled the beginning of the ceremony proper. The national flag of China was then raised, in accordance with usual protocol, and the national anthem of China performed.^[8] Performers wearing suits in bright colours paraded round the stadium, as a welcoming ceremony preceding the athletes' entry.^[8] As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, the ceremony included a parade of nations, with a flag bearer for each national team. Contrary to Olympic tradition, the national team of Greece did not enter first, as the Paralympic Games traces its roots to Stoke Mandeville rather than Olympia; the host country, as is customary in both Olympic and Paralympic Games, came last. As Chinese is written in characters and not letters, the order of the teams' entry was determined by the number of strokes in the first character of their respective countries' Simplified Chinese names.^[9] Countries with the same number of strokes in the first character are sorted by those of the next character. This made Guinea (几内亚) the first country to enter as it takes two strokes to write the first character in the country's name (几). Following the athletes' parade, a performance took place, divided into chapters and sub-chapters entitled the "Journey of Space" and "Journey of Life"^[8] The sunbird performance entailed Yang Haitao (杨海涛), a singer with a visual impairment, singing about dreams while an acrobat in sunbird costume descended in simulated flight from the air and "awakened the blind singer from his sleep".^[8] The ceremony concludes with Hou Bin, the first Chinese paralympian to be three-time champion consecutively in the same event, lifted himself and his wheelchair up on a rope by strength of arms to the top of Beijing National Stadium, where he lit the cauldron to mark the beginning of the Games.^[10]

The 2008 Summer Paralympics closing ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium. It began at 8:00 pm China Standard Time (UTC+8) on September 17, 2008.^[11]

Twenty sports were on the program:

Rowing made its first appearance in the Paralympics at these games.

The following National Paralympic Committees sent delegations to compete.^[12] Macau and the Faroe Islands are members of the International Paralympic Committee, but not of the International Olympic Committee; hence they participate in the Paralympic Games but not in the Olympics.

Burundi, Gabon, Georgia, Haiti and Montenegro participated in the Paralympics for the first time.^[1]

Botswana was due to take part, but its single athlete, defending Paralympic champion sprinter Tshotlego Morama, withdrew prior to the Games due to injury. The country's last-minute attempt to field other athletes in her place was rejected, as they did not meet the requirement of having participated in international events.^[13]

This table is based on the medal count of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

The ranking is sorted primarily by the number of gold medals earned by a National Paralympic Committee. The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals. If countries are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically by IPC Country Code.

  *   Host nation (Host nation (China))

•   Australia – ABC1 and ABC2.
•   Brazil – SporTV2 and Terra Networks.
•   Canada – Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in English and Société Radio Canada (SRC) in French.
•   China – Chinese Central Television (CCTV) provided coverage on CCTV-1 (opening and closing ceremony), CCTV-5 and CCTV-7 as all direct live telecast transmission.
•   France – Eurosport
•   Japan – NHK's NHK General TV provided coverage on JOAK-1
•   Azerbaijan – AZTV
•   Norway – NRK
•   Sweden – Sveriges Television
•   Turkey – TRT
•   United States – Universal Sports
•   United Kingdom – BBC provided coverage on BBC Television's BBC One.

In France, following the Games, Philippe Juvin, national secretary of the governing Union for a Popular Movement, accused national public television network France Télévisions of having practiced "segregation" by providing live coverage of the Beijing Olympics but only ten-minute daily summaries of events, outside prime time, for the Beijing Paralympics. France Télévisions replied that it would take Juvin to court for slander.^[14][15]

• 2007 Summer Special Olympics
• 2008 Summer Olympics
• 2009 Summer Deaflympics
• 2022 Winter Paralympics

• Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games Official Site
• International Paralympic Committee
• Paralympic Online Streaming Coverage