Gutted that the papaplegic man getting out of his wheelchair and taking the symbolic first kick wasn’t even televised in the UK!
That was the ONLY reason I watched, as I have zero interest in football. I waited patiently through the whole thing. I saw him in the stadium. He was mentioned briefly in passing. I expected any minute now. Next thing it was finished, and I never saw his moment of glory. Probably cut to ads or some cr@p from Adrian Chiles.
Then I thought I must have got the wrong end of the stick, and it was still to come just before the main kick-off at 9:00. So hung on for that. Still nothing.
Only found out from Google that yes, it did happen successfully, but no, British audiences didn’t see it.
For me, it would have been the highlight of the show. I honestly thought they must have abandoned it at the last minute for technical reasons, or perhaps it had been an embarrassing disaster and they’d edited it out to spare the poor guy’s feelings.
But no, disabled people just aren’t interesting enough, apparently. An fine moment to cut away for more hot air about England’s pathetic chances in the competition.
I’m sure there’s footage out there, and anyway, I know it did happen. But as you say, it’s not the same.
I thought it was going to be the climax of the ceremony. Instead, it was apparently about two seconds that most networks either missed, or even worse, made a calculated decision not to cover.
It had been amply covered by multiple news sources in the weeks leading up to it, including the science behind it, which was why I was so particularly keen to see the big moment - or what we’d been led to believe would be the big moment. Then nothing. I gather it was not just an ITV thing, but many networks around the world didn’t cover it, and apparently even the “official” FIFA footage didn’t.
I saw the guy in the stadium, and was waiting for the hush and the drum-roll, then suddenly the ceremony was over, and I hadn’t seen anything. I was left baffled. No amount of reading about it afterwards or looking for footage on You Tube can undo the fact it was so unjustly sidelined (literally and metaphorically) at the event itself. I felt sorry for the young chap (and the seven understudies who also trained) and his pioneering neuro team that all they got for months of work was that! It was almost as if the organisers forgot that part, and had to skip it.
I knew that, visually, the achievement would be modest - we couldn’t expect to see him take a flying leap and score a penalty. But the point was in seeing a paralysed man stand up and kick a ball at all. Isn’t that amazing by itself? Instead, all we got was JLo shaking her booty - couldn’t even hear her sing.
You should have watched Springwatch!, I managed 10 mins of the opening ceremony,the sound was so bad that I opted for Masterchef (which I never normally watch,only because our recording of another programme didn’t work) can’t see myself watching much of ITVs coverage…it is absolutely dire, I’m not sure they weren’t throwing rocks at the booth to get Childs to shut up!
