please empty your brain below
Oscar's name is neither Pistorios (caption) nor Pistorious (text) but Pistorius.

What are you going to do with that "The 2012 Paralympics are here!" banner tomorrow? It, and its predecessors, have been a fixture of the site ever since I started reading. Maybe you'll bring back a link to your Tumblr account? :-)

swirlythingy | Homepage | 09.09.12 - 1:29 p.m. | #

Judging from your photos DG we would have been sat almost right above you in the rafters. It was indeed a night to remember. Such an enthusiastic crowd, we even clapped along to several national athems and if the Stadium had a roof, it would have been lifted with the cheers for Maciej - I almost had a tear in my eye when I saw how affected he was by the support from the crowd. I also loved the Tunisian shot put winner, who completed a victory lap with such exuberance, and a special mention to the eventual Javelin winner from Iran, who nearly got run down by the wheelchair competitors in his joyful abandon during his victory lap. Still smiling, just thinking about it.

So, we took your advice, stayed to the end, got to see Oscar get his medal and give an interview, then get some photos of us by the Cauldron (a thing of beauty up close, but my, the heat coming off it was palpable even at that distance), and had the easiest journey home on the DLR.

And I now know that the best way to stop a Mexican wave that has lapped 4 times round a full to capacity stadium is to play a national anthem and get everyone standing!

s | 09.09.12 - 5:12 p.m. | #

That whole "people leaving before the end" thing was clearly nowt to do with transport, btw. I was there for yesterday's morning session and the same thing happened then, too... as soon as the last event was done (even before, actually, when folks realised there were no Brits to come) they streamed out, so that for the final two medal ceremonies (incl. the one that Clare Balding presented the flowers at) the stadium was barely half full (probably less).

Shame. But then, if several groups of people around me were anything to go by, the main purpose of a trip to the Paralympics was for parents to drag along small children and then be annoyed when they get bored after 20 minutes, and thus spend the ensuing two hours shouting at them. So they probably had to go and do more of that. :-( (Hint: those of us facing our mortality are probably motivated by knowing these games will never come to London again for decades. Your average 6 year old: not so much.)

mighty mouse | 09.09.12 - 7:05 p.m. | #

Chuckling at your Closing Ceremony tweets from the stadium :)

GAA | 09.09.12 - 11:19 p.m. | #

I was there at last night's athletics event in the stadium too - it was an awesome atmosphere. We stayed to the end of Pistorius's medal ceremony too - though I have to say, we enjoyed Lepiato's genuine emotion in response to the audience's support when he received his High Jump gold. An amazing night!

Michael Reeve | Homepage | 10.09.12 - 12:37 a.m. | #











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