2022 Winter Paralympics

[UTVLifer]

Yes, the ceremonies have all been rather disappointing though I did catch the drummers earlier and it kind of felt a bit like normal service resumed, ever so slightly.

Paris of course will be quite different with their plans for the Olympic Opening Ceremony at least to be across the city (not sure if that extends to the closing and paralympic ceremonies) and we've got to hope covid won't be so much of a consideration then. I still wouldn't be surprised to see a U-turn on that plan for cost and security reasons and us end up with a more conventional stadium ceremony but we'll see.

The drummers earlier felt a slight callback to the Olympics OC from 2008, just on a massively smaller scale. But it was the only point from the Paralympic ceremonies that felt like normal service. The Winter Olympic ceremonies weren't much better, though there was some highlights in the OC and the 2008 throwbacks in the CC were nice.

I feel pretty much the same as you about the Paris ceremonies, and I too wouldn't be surprised to see a U-turn on either security or economic grounds either - the Stade de France was mooted as the ceremonies stadium before the organisers announced the river/city based plans for the Olympic OC - with the formalities and Closing Ceremony planned to take place at the Trocadéro. Can't find anything info on the Paris Paralympics ceremonies online yet.


Also, I also really want to see Paris and/or Milan-Cortina to go back to a proper cauldron for their games, as the Beijing snowflake has been quite dull and the flame being really small has a shame. Almost like the organisers knew full well that they couldn't compete with 2008's cauldron (which is now permanently located out on the Olympic Green actually) and so they just put as little effort in as possible.