Two weeks after the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games, another sports event opened in Beijing. This time, the athletes are special and the Paralympic Games began with a unique opening ceremony participated by 148 countries all over the world.
For Team Philippines, we only had 3 athletes competing in two events. They are Pedro Sollique, Cherry Pinpin and Ads Dumapong. Sollique and Pinpin both competed in the 2-person keelboat in Qingdao. Ads Dumapong is fielded in women’s powerlifting for the 80+kg category.
As the Games are about to end on Wednesday, our athletes have also completed their events. Sollique and Pinpin placed last after 10 races in their event. Ads Dumapong, on the other hand, did not start on her event.
I didn’t actually get to follow our athletes so I’m not really sure what happened. It seems like they were mysteriously forgotten even by our news stations in the Philippines. To our special athletes, I’m proud of you for competing in one of the best sports event in history. You may not have won but you’re already winners by overcoming your disabilities and showing the world that you’re better than the others.
Claudine on the Go 
waah!!! I would love to volunteer in special olympics 😦 I volunteered sa phils before and it was a great experience…nagwork ka uli dun?
nope.. they no longer required my services.. 😛
Thank you for the news, Claudine. The Paralympic news blackout happens in a lot of the countries, according to the disabled sailors I’ve met in Qingdao. Coverage in China was excellent, and it seems they really do care to help their disabled reintegrate with society.
The SKUD 18 debuted in the Beijing Paralympics 2008. It’s a highly technical boat, which unfortunately the Philippines has yet to acquire, so we were the only team to charter a SKUD in Qingdao, China. I hope the gov’t can organize funding to purchase at least 2 SKUDs (to match race) soon, so future Filipino Paralympic Sailing teams can really be truly competitive for the 2012 London Paralympics and beyond.
Photos and a tiny part of the the Philippines first Paralympic Sailing Team story here:
http://www.pinoyboats.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=706
SKUD info here:
http://www.accessclass.org/
Paralympic sailing microsite:
http://www.sailing.org/paralympics
Sailability
http://www.sailability.org/
Still writing the story, so will be in touch later.
Congrats Cherrie! Tell me where to sign up to put a pledge on this boat. Both you and Endot’s determination to compete is most newsworthy. We hope that awareness for our special athletes will grow more.