This morning was the 25 annual Los Angeles Marathon.
The wheelchair start was supposed to be 5 minutes before the broadcast began, but due to traffic delays the wheelchair start was shown during the broadcast. So I was able to see my husband start the race. Which of course made me very happy.
The broadcast included the starts of the wheelchairs, elite women runners, elite men runners and the citizen's race. It did not include the hand-cycle start nor the wheelchair or hand-cycle finish. In fact, I did not witness any wheelchair coverage after the elite women's start.
While I am thrilled to have been able to watch a US road race during a live national broadcast. I am disappointed that the coverage was so poor for the wheeled athletes.
Krige Schabort won the wheelchair race in 1:39:15
Hubba finished 6th at 1:58:07
Edna Kipligat won the gender challenge today in her second marathon ever.
You can watch the entire broadcast on demand at Universal Sports.
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ReplyDeleteGlad you got to see your husband on the tv.
ReplyDeleteI hear ya about the lack of coverage for sporting events for athletes with disabilities...and it stinks!
Did you know we just finished the Vancouver Paralympics last night???
Yup thats right...and it wouldn't surprise me if you didnt know about it cuz NBC wont show them live!
NBC is the worst about not giving athletes with disabilities the respect they deserve by showing the Paralympics.
ok..getting off my soap box now! :)
Yes KD, I have a couple of earlier posts about the Vancouver Paralympic coverage.
ReplyDeleteIn the US: NBC did provide opening ceremony highlights on 3/13 and will have a Paralympic Recap show on 4/10, 3-5pm EDT.
Universal Sports provided daily coverage starting 3/15 and ending tonight at 7pm and 11pm EDT.
In Canada: CTV had nearly 60 hours of Paralympic coverage.
Paralympic Sports TV, Universal Sports and CTV all have some online coverage.
While this in no way compares to the coverage NBC provides for the able-bodied Olympics (as I've come to call it), that fact that there is some is very promising.
It wasn't that long ago that there was no paralympic coverage and no national road racing coverage at all.
I think if there was more coverage, more people would participate. When more people participate, there will be more coverage.
I consider these two events to be the begining of a snow ball effect.