The medals of the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games are a superellipse, or squared circle, and based on a large master artwork of a raven by Corrine Hunt, a Canadian designer/artist of Komoyue and Tlingit heritage. Each of the medals has a unique hand-cropped section of the abstract art, making every medal one-of-a-kind. Photograph © VANOC/COVAN.
If you’ve wanted to get in on the second largest winter sports event in the world, March 12 marks your starting gate. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has announced that with more than 25 broadcasters planning to provide coverage from the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, more than 1.4 billion viewers will have access to televised coverage. In addition, ParalympicSport.TV, the IPC’s Internet TV channel, has announced that it will be offering the most comprehensive live coverage ever of the Paralympic Winter Games. The station will broadcast from the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games every day from March 12-21. All Paralympic sports will be covered in the programming, either live or delayed. The coverage will also be made available as video on demand (VOD) after the events on www.ParalympicSport.TV. In addition, highlights will be available on YouTube.
U.S. Coverage
In the United States, NBC Universal Sports will broadcast a daily competition program, and NBC will broadcast a program showing highlights of the opening ceremony and competition, which will be published after the Games.
Canadian Coverage
Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium will broadcast more than 50 hours of the Winter Games. In addition to live events and daily highlights on television, the consortium’s multi-platform coverage will include results, updates, features, and pre-promotional programming on radio, digital, and print, marking the biggest and most robust coverage ever in Canada of the Paralympic Games.
Each day, the Consortium will produce a 90-minute highlights show of the day’s activities, results, and updated medal standings, airing in English on either CTV, TSN, or Rogers Sportsnet and in French on RDS or RIS Info Sports. In addition, the Consortium will televise all Team Canada Ice Sledge Hockey games in English (CTV, TSN, Rogers Sportsnet) and French (RDS, RIS Info Sports), with the gold medal game airing live on CTV and RDS.
Australian Coverage
In Australia, ABC will broadcast highlights and daily live coverage of the Vancouver Paralympics. ABC1 will screen the highlights of each day’s competition, with half-hour programs each evening at 6:30. Hosted by Shaun Giles and with commentary from Steve Robilliard, this program will also feature interviews, medal tallies, and athlete profiles. It will be repeated each evening at 11:30 on ABC1, and will be available on ABC iView. A website will also be hosted at abc.net.au/paralympics. The coverage will begin with a half-hour package of highlights from the opening ceremony on March 13 at 6:30 p.m. on ABC1.
Asian Coverage
In Japan, more than 20 hours of broadcasting are expected for Vancouver. NHK will broadcast a special program of 25 minutes on the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games every day. Additionally, summaries will be shown on Educational TV.
European Coverage
The Europe-wide broadcaster Eurosport will broadcast more than 14 hours live from the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games. Additionally, there will be a camera crew onsite for interviews, portraits, and reports.
For Germany, an expected 20 hours will be broadcast. Channels ARD and ZDF will take over the majority of broadcasting, with the plan to broadcast an average two hours of highlights every day; in the morning between 10 and 11 and in the late evening between midnight and 1 a.m.
In Spain, an expected 40 hours will be broadcast. The Spanish broadcaster TVE will broadcast up to six hours per day, and one hour of highlights will be shown every day on La2. Additionally, all alpine skiing races with Spanish athletes competing will be broadcast live on Teledeporte between 6 and 11 p.m.
In Norway, more than 25 hours are expected to be broadcast. NRK will broadcast a special program of 30 minutes every day, with additional live and delayed coverage of the ice sledge hockey games of the Norwegian team and of biathlon and cross-country skiing events.
In the Czech Republic, approximately five hours will be shown from the Czech broadcaster CT, with 40 minutes of daily highlights.
Finnish broadcaster YLE will include daily summaries and highlights for their broadcasts.
Sweden’s SVT will have daily summaries with selected live broadcasts from ice sledge hockey, wheelchair curling, alpine skiing, and cross-country skiing.
The Austrian broadcaster ORF will have a total of 4.5 hours, with daily highlights of 25 minutes.
In France, a total of over five hours will be broadcast. The French broadcasters FT2 and FT3 announced that they would broadcast around 30 minutes of highlights daily.
