...won by a particular nation being an accurate proxy of the way it looks after its disabled. Or is it merely that investment is concentrated in high-profile events like the Paralympics to the detriment of day-to-day care? Or, less cynically, is it just that a particular crop of athletes all happen to come good at the same time?
Whatever the answer, (a) watching paralympians perform in Beijing and then (b) listening to many of them being interviewed afterwards has been truly awe-inspiring and humbling; not in the conventional, sometimes patronising ("gosh, haven't they done well, in spite of everything!") sense, but in realising that with regard to (a), just how motivated and exceptional these individuals are in so many ways while, with regard to (b), just how much we are all the same in so many other ways.
So how do we keep these heroines and heroes in the headlines? Personally, I'd like to read more about Ellie and David and their teammates' journey ahead than about many of their "able-bodied' counterparts who actually fill our backpages and bulletins...
