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And suddenly that was that, and Tokyo 2020 was in the rear-view mirror. The Paralympics delivered us 12 incredible days of action – but on the whole the legacy of these Games will remain uncertain for some time to come. With just a couple of days left of the event, Japan’s prime minister Yoshihide Suga announced he was to step down from his party’s leadership amid mounting discontent at his government’s handling of the Covid pandemic. Japan’s attention has maybe not fully been on the Paralympics.
But our attention was. I always think with the Paralympics there is an element where participation is a reward in itself. Who can forget Ellie Robinson’s emotional speech declaring that beating her debilitating hip condition and finishing fifth in the the final of the women’s S6 50m butterfly was “a story of triumph, not a story of defeat”?