The 17th Summer Paralympics are under way in Paris, and there are going to be 549 competitions in 22 sports. The Games are not only streaming on the Peacock network, but the network rights holder, NBC Universal, is offering substantial coverage on some of its networks, although they are not doing a nightly Paralympic show on their main over-the-air network.
The Paralympics have a number of prominent American athletes coming back, such as track’s Tatyana McFadden, rugby’s Chuck Aoki, and basketball’s Steve Serio and Paul Schulte. There is also the ongoing story of former UMass-Lowell women’s lacrosse player Noelle Lambert, who is competing in the long jump and 100 meters in Paris.
There is not, however, an athletic outlet for Para lacrosse or field hockey athletes at the Paralympics. The number of participating countries in these two sports is only numbered in the dozens, which is, of course, the determinant as to whether a sport makes the Paralympic program.
We’ve noted the organization of both sports over the course of years. We’ve even observed a demonstration wheelchair lacrosse event at the Katie Samson Invitational.
Now, it’s enough to point out the absence of a sport from the Paralympic program, but it it’s a another to actually mobilize people and resources in somewhere between 80 and 100 countries in order to form national sides. There are a lot of steps to take and many boxes to check before we get field hockey and lacrosse into the Paralympics.
