Paralympic Games almost here!

One Week Out…

One week out from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games (the Games open on the 6th of September) the majority of the team have departed the New Zealand shores. The remainder of the team will be departing on Monday evening.

Preparations are going well and members of the management team have arrived in the Paralympic village in Beijing. They currently are setting up in preparation of athletes and support staff arrivals, this begins on the 30th of August with the Boccia team.

Newsletter…

Attached please find a copy of the latest ‘Countdown’ newsletter in which you can find more information about Paralympics New Zealand and the New Zealand Paralympic Teams preparation for the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games. Also attached you will find a schedule with the dates of competition for members of the NZ team.

Support Your Team…

Messages of support can be sent to the New Zealand Paralympic Games Team by emailing , come on and get behind your team!

Coverage of the Paralympic Games…

Paralympics New Zealand will keep you up-to-date via this email list with the latest media releases.

To further follow the achievements of our athletes there are a number of websites to view.

• The Paralympics New Zealand homepage http://www.paralympics.org.nz

This will be kept up-to-date with the latest news from Beijing.

• The “Eyes of Beijing” site. http://beijing.sparc.org.nz/

You can also down load the Paralympic tracker from here which will bring results and information about upcoming events for the New Zealand Team right to your desktop.

• TVNZ have a Paralympics mini site http://tvnz.co.nz/view/sport_minisite_index_skin/sport_paralympics_minisite_group
This site has news, and video from the games that can be accessed via TVNZ ondemand.

• TV ONE will be running two documentaries in the lead up to the Games, these will each be 1 hour long. The 1st will air at 11.30pm on the 31st of August and the 2nd at 11pm on the 1st of September.
• ONE Sport will provide a daily package of highlights from throughout the event, screening on both TV ONE (11pm daily) and TVNZ 7 (4:10pm daily). These packages will also be available online at TVNZ ondemand.

Thank you…

Thank you for your support of the New Zealand Paralympic Games Team, and we look forward to the opening ceremony on the 6th of September.

GO THE KIWIS!!

Dave Stewart
Project Manager – Paralympics New Zealand