RYAN: Yeah, Pam…I just, I’m a little sad because school basically started and I miss the Summer, and I miss the Olympics, it’s like my favorite thing to watch–

PAM: Well, we can’t stop the school year, but…you do know the Olympics aren’t over, right?

RYAN: Wait. WHUT.

PAM: Yeah. The Paralympics started on August 28th!

RYAN: OH MY GALOSHES. The Paralympics have already started?!?! YAAAAAS! Can we deep dive and talk about it?

PAM: Of course we can, but first, we gotta start the show. I’m Pamela Kirkland.

RYAN: And I’m Ryan Willard. It’s Friday, August 30th.

PAM: This is a Ten News Deep Dive.

PAM: It’s August 30th, and the 2024 Olympics are over!

RYAN: Or are they? Dun dun dun!

PAM: The end of the Paris Olympics means now it’s time for the 2024 Paralympic Games! They started on August 28th, and will run until September 8th.

RYAN: Ten’ers, if you don’t know what the Paralympics are, you’re in for a treat. The Paralympics are one of the coolest things out there. Even cooler than a polar bear eating ice cream in an igloo

PAM: Like the Olympics we just saw, The Paralympics are a major international sporting event, but the big difference is that The Paralympics highlights athletes with disabilities or impairments.

RYAN: Some examples of these include impaired muscle power, range of movement, limb deficiency, or vision and intellectual impairment. This means that these athletes might look different than the ones we just saw compete in Paris, and can even look different from their competitors, but they all perform some pretty incredible stuff.

PAM: The Paralympics now take place about two weeks after the Olympics, in the same place, but that wasn’t always the case. The first modern Olympics were held in 1896, so the Paralympics are a little younger.

RYAN: The first official edition wasn’t until 1960, and it was known at the time as “The Stoke Mandeville Game.” We’ll get to why in a second, but we’ve got to rewind a little bit first. <<Ryan makes rewinding noise>>

PAM: In 1948, a British doctor named Sir Ludwig Guttmann -

RYAN: Pamela, please say it like you mean it.

PAM: <<in a British accent>> Doctor Sir Ludwig Guttman, organized a sports competition involving 16 World War II veterans. These competitors had spinal injuries that kept them from being able to walk or move the way others might be able to. These were the first Stoke-Mandeville games, named after the Stoke-Mandeville hospital.

RYAN: The games may have started small with just 16 participants, but these first Stoke-Mandeville games were what eventually snowballed into the paralympic games.

PAM: From that first event, it grew and grew. In 1954, fourteen nations were represented at Stoke-Mandeville, with athletes from as far away as Australia, Egypt, Pakistan, and Portugal.

RYAN: In 1960, these Olympic-style games moved to the same site as the Olympics and for the first time, and Rome hosted the Paralympics after the close of the standard Olympics. These paralympic games attracted 400 participants from 23 countries, who competed in eight sports, including archery, basketball, and swimming.

PAM: Wow, 16 participants to 400 participants? That’s a big improvement!

RYAN: It gets better! In 1976, the first Winter Games in Paralympics history were held in Sweden. In 1989, it got even more official!

PAM: The International Paralympic Committee was founded as an international non-profit organization in Germany, specifically Dusseldorf.

RYAN: Bless you! Oh wait, Dusseldorf is a place…The Paralympics and the Olympics have a lot in common, right?

PAM: Yes they do! They both have summer games every four years, winter games every four years, include opening and closing ceremonies, and most importantly, feature some super impressive athletes.

RYAN: All these similarities make a lot of sense, considering the word “Paralympic” is from the Greek preposition “para.” That means beside or alongside. Put it together with the word “Olympic,” and voila! Man, would I love to be “para” in Paris with the athletes right now.

PAM: The Paralympic Games may not have quite the viewership of the standard Olympics, but they’ve got a lot of fans, to say the least. The Paralympic Games are the world’s third biggest sporting event by ticket sales, outnumbered only by the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup.

RYAN: To give you an idea, the Rio 2016 Paralympics attracted 4,328 athletes from 159 countries, who competed in 22 sports. There was even an Independent Paralympic Athletes team with two refugee athletes. The Games attracted a record cumulative TV audience of 4.1 billion people in more than 150 countries, and 2.15 million tickets were sold.

PAM: On the chillier side, South Korea staged a record-breaking Paralympic Winter Games in 2018. Featuring a whopping 567 athletes from 49 countries, the Games were viewed by a TV audience of 2.02 billion, and a record 343,000 spectators. But it gets even better!

RYAN: The Paris 2024 games have barely just begun but already, they’ll make history as the first Paralympic Games to offer some live coverage from each of the 22 sports. Tokyo’s 2020 Olympics only had 19 sports broadcast, and Rio’s 2016 Paralympic Games 15 sports were shown live.

PAM: And Ryan, when you look at some of the athletes, it’s no wonder that people are eager to tune in. Everybody that makes it to the Paralympics is super impressive just for making it there, which makes it even more difficult to be the best of the best.

RYAN: That’d be someone like swimmer Trischa Zorn-Hudson. Despite being born with a genetic eye condition that left her blind, she’s the most successful athlete in the history of the Paralympic Games. She’s won 55 medals, including 41 gold medals, over seven Paralympics. For context, Michael Phelps has 28 medals.

PAM: Absolutely incredible! I’d love to know what it’s like to compete at that level.

RYAN: Yeah, me too.

PAM: Well, I think we might know someone who might know someone.

RYAN: I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I’m game!

RYAN: Pam, what sport are you best at?

PAM: Hmmm, I’d say _______. How about you?

RYAN: I’m a pretty fast swimmer and a pretty mediocre table tennis/ping pong player. So I’d say swimming. Some people have said I’m like a mermaid in the pool. Errr, a MerMAN, actually. Like a MerMan.

PAM: What would you say if I told you that Ten News correspondent Sarah Namias sat down with an ACTUAL Paralympian, who competed in swimming at Rio in 2016?

RYAN: I’d say I’m FREAKIN and GEEKIN out right now. SARAAAAAAH! IS THIS TRUE!

SARAH: (FROM THE OTHER ROOM) UMMM, YES RYAN. I’m with her now, maybe calm down and just…listen?

RYAN: (whispers) Okay cool! I’m listening!
SARAH: What strokes do you swim?

REILLY: (answers and says) and I also swim butterfly.

RYAN: Excuse me, hi, hello legend. Reilly, I’m Ryan. Ummm, did you just say, that when you swim, you turn into a butterfly(unintelligible)

REILLY: I’m sorry, I couldn’t understand what you–

RYAN: When you. SWIM. Do you. Turn into. A… BUTTERFLY.

REILLY: Yeah! I swim the butterfly!

RYAN: <SFX runs away screaming> AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

REILLY: …is he okay?

SARAH: Yeah. Ryan just umm, has an irrational fear of butterflies.

REILLY: He knows that I’m talking about the butterfly stroke, not a literal butterfly, right?

SARAH: No. No he does not.

SARAH: Thanks for stopping by Reilly! Oh, btw, you should stop by the Trivia Throne on your way out!

REILLY: Okay, will do! Thanks for having me!

PAM: Thank you so much for joining us, Reilly! It was an honor to have you here.

RYAN: And Reilly, yes I will race you if you ever challenge me, and yes, I’m prepared to lose to you. You can catch the Paralympics now through Sept 8th on NBC and the Peacock app!

OWEN: Welcome to the Trivia Room!

REILLY: Hey Owen!

OWEN: Oh my goodness. Reilly Boyt! Ummmm, a real-life Paralympian! Ummm hi.

REILLY: I heard you’re the Trivia Master. And I like challenges so…

OWEN: Okay, well I’ve got a challenge for you. Hop up on the Trivia Throne.

REILLY: Sweet!

OWEN: Paris, France has been the host of the Olympic and Paralympic games this year. Paris is home to the Eiffel Tower, one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world. Which of the following is true about the Eiffel Tower?

It has 5,000 steps.
It can grow.
It’s made mostly of wood.

OWEN: The answer is… B! It can grow! The Eiffel Tower only has 1,664 steps, but you can only climb 674 of them anyway. It’s made mostly of wrought iron, not wood. As for growing, you heard right! Metal contracts when losing heat, so in the winter, the tower actually shrinks! It also leans to one side, because the sun only hits one of the four sides, so this side will expand with the heat, causing the tower to lean.

OWEN: Thanks for playing Reilly!

REILLY: Thanks for having me, Owen!

OWEN: Ten’ers, if you have a great trivia question or want to sit on the Trivia Throne, leave us a message at 877-TEN-NEWS and we might have you on the show!

PAM: Ummmm, Ry? Why are you in a mermaid costume…?

RYAN: It’s a MerMan, costume, actually. And it’s because I need to find a pool so I can train, in case Reilly challenges me. Obviously.

PAM: Yeah, Reilly’s a legend but she retired. I don’t know if she’ll be racing you any time soon.

RYAN: That’s why I gotta start training now, legends come out of retirement all the time.. Also, I never know if a Ten’er is going to challenge me, so I gotta be ready.

PAM: I don’t know if any amount of training will help you beat any of them…

RYAN: Thank you for believing in me. Two questions: One, do you have a towel I can borrow, because I’m already cold. And two, should we give Ten News Snaps to one of our listeners?

PAM: No I don’t, and yes we should. But before we do, here’s a quick note for the grownups.

RYAN: Time for Ten News Snaps! <Grand fanfare SFX>

PAM: A Ten’er named Doglover 782 said, “I LOVE this podcast 5 stars!!! I like the 10 things you need to know right now episodes! As a kid it’s really nice to know what’s going on around the world! Thanks to those who created this podcast amazing job!”

RYAN: Thank you so much for those kind words, Doglover782, and thanks for listening to the Ten News! FYI, Ten Things You Need to Know drops on Thursdays, and our deep dive episodes drop once a month. If you want some bonus content, you could join the Ten’ers Club on our website. And to our grownups, if you want to help support the Ten News, you can make a tax-deductible donation at the link in our show notes. The whole team thanks you for your support!

PAM: “The Ten News” is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts, and part of the Airwave Podcast Network.

RYAN: The Ten News creative team is in awe of the amazing Paralympians and includes Tracey Crooks, Adam the Great Bambino Bernard, Kyle Murdock, Hebba Gouda and Carson Potter. And a big thanks to Sarah Namias and Reilly Boydt for stopping by and to Owen for contributing to this episode.

PAM: Our Production Director is Jeremiah Tittle, and our Executive Producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan. I’m Pamela Kirkland.

RYAN: And I’m Ryan Willard, thanks for listening to the Ten News

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