Paralympians pick up Samsung Paralympic Blogger awards

Over the past three weeks, 50 top Paralympians have been recording behind-the-scenes video blogs as well as racking up over 70 Paralympic medals. 13 Sep 2012
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Samsung Paralympic Bloggers for the 2012 Paralympic Games

Samsung Paralympic Bloggers for the 2012 Paralympic Games

ⒸLieven Coudenys
By IPC

The blogs were moving, inspirational and sometimes side-splittingly funny, allowing fans to get closer than ever to the lives of the athletes.

Spain’s Teresa Perales and USA's Alana Nichols and Jarryd Wallace all received Samsung Paralympic Blogger awards for the video blogs they created during the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

The awards went to the most viewed, most creative and most inspirational videos, respectively.

They were part of 50 leading athletes, who for the first time ever at a major competition offered a unique insight into their London 2012 experiences by recording nearly 600 behind-the-scenes video blogs using Samsung Galaxy Note phones.

The content was uploaded to YouTube.com/ParalympicSportTV and shared on IPC, London 2012 and Samsung online channels.

The blogs were moving, inspirational and sometimes side-splittingly funny, allowing fans to get closer than ever to the lives of the athletes.

The Paralympians were also successful off camera, picking up a total of 39 gold, 18 silver and 15 bronze medals at the Games.

Perales, who won one gold, three silver and two bronze medals in the Aquatics Centre picked up the award for the most-viewed blog, which had nearly 26,000 views by the deadline on 10 September. The video shows an emotional, behind-the-scenes moment when Perales gives her medal to her son in a corridor of the venue.

Nichols missed out on a medal after USA’s wheelchair basketball team lost the bronze medal game 71-47 to the Netherlands. But she picked up the award for most creative blog after filming a “giant Russian rower” pick up a “giant turtle” in the Paralympic Village, and then challenged him to an arm wrestle. The award was judged by a panel of representatives from Samsung and the IPC, who enjoyed Nichols’ humour and spontaneity.

Wallace, a T44 sprinter, won the award for the most inspirational blog, which was given to the film that most conveyed the message of Samsung’s ‘Sport doesn’t care who you are’ campaign. The panel of judges from Samsung and IPC were impressed with Wallace’s true display of sportsmanship. Her recorded the blog after his team missed out on bronze when they were disqualified in the 4x100m T42-46 relay for a lane infringement.

“I want to start off by congratulating South Africa for winning the relay with a world record," Wallace said. "What an amazing race it was to be part of.

“We actually ended up getting third place, but got disqualified for a lane infringement. You know, it’s just kind of part of it: it happens sometimes and unfortunately it happened tonight.”

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