Paralympics coverage around the world

Scott Danberg and Carlos Leon of the U.S. Paralympic Team are at a park in South Florida

to raise awareness about the 2008 Games.

As the Paralympics nears, I will gather together news stories from around the world about disabled athletes who will be competing. The Paralympics appear to be growing in importance in sports coverage internationally, which is a very good thing.

Australia proudly reports that it will have the most TV coverage of the Paralympics in the world.

Australian Broadcasting (ABC) says it will show more than 100 hours of action from the Games in September. Australia has 48 members of its Paralympics team.

In the UK, Sir Paul McCartney appeared in a British TV campaign for Paralympic athletes, urging the public to donate to the cause, on July 7. The former Beatle is asking for British viewers' support in reaching the Paralympics Gb's goal of $4 million (£2 million).

• The Baltimore Sun reports that Beijing-bound wheelchair racer from Maryland, Tatyana McFadden, is featured on McDonald's beverage cups and in a television commercial for Hilton Hotels Corp.


• Shot and discus thrower Rebecca Chin is covered in the Wrexham Leader in the UK.


• Patty Cisneros, who is captain for the U.S. women's wheelchair basketball team and is one of four finalists for the ESPY for the best female athlete with a disability, is featured in the northwest Indiana Post-Tribune.


• Wheelchair basketball player Liesl Tesch of Australia, who was the first - and only - woman in a professional men's wheelchair basketball competition in Italy, is covered in The Australian.


• The Canadian Paralympic team is profiled in the Toronto Globe and Mail.


• Runner Ranjesh Prakash, who will be the lone athlete from Fiji's Paralympics squad competing in the Paralympics Games, is in The Fiji Times.


• Blind cyclist Karissa Whitsell is profiled in her hometown paper, the Grand Rapids, Mich., Press.


• Kent rowers Alistair McKean and James Morgan who recently made the eight-person Great Britain squad are featured in Kent Online. And BBC sport profiled the entire British rowing team.


• BBC Radio interviews former Paralympic swimmer Sarah Storey who is switching to cycling for the Beijing Paralympics.


• AllAfrica reports that nine athletes in Rwanda received sponsorships to work toward qualifying for the Paralympics: Claude Nzayisenga, Alphonse Mukadayisenga, and Hermas Muvunyi (100 metres), Theoneste Nsengimana, (5000m), Oliver Akobasenga (200m), Lysha Kwizera (cycling), Sylvester Karema (weight lifting), Moussa Turamyimana and Patrick Mbarushimana (Swimming).


• The Liverpool, UK, Daily Post proudly reports on its three Paralympians, Abdi Jama, Jon Pollock and Ade Oregbemi, who are part of the men’s British wheelchair basketball team.


• The Victoria Times Colonist in Canada wrote about all its Olympians and Paralympians headed for Beijing.


• BBC Sport reports on Ireland's top Paralympian, Jason Smyth, 21, who had two golds at the 2006 Paralympics World Championships and is the world record holder in the T12/13 100m with a time of 10.85 seconds.


• Jamie Dean, 26, a member of the U. S rowing team is profiled in the Charleston, W. Va., Daily Mail.


• In Worcestershire, UK, the News boasts of four local residents as members of the Great Britain Paralympics football squad: Ajmal Ahmed, Lee Greatbatch, William Norman, and Keryn Seal.


• The Times in the UK profiled Helene Raynsford, who was a member of the British women’s wheelchair basketball team from 2003-2006, and now competes in rowing.


• Canada's Michelle Stilwell is among the 26 Canadian athletes to compete at the Paralympics. The Naniamo Daily News reports that "the 33-year-old wheelchair racer was a virtual lock to make the team after winning four gold medals in the T52 category at the IWAS World Championships in Taiwan."


• Carlos Leon, 23, a disabled veteran, is competing in the seated discus and shot put events, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.


• Jonathan Paterson, 20, plays for the Scotland cerebral palsy team and has been named its captain, according to The Bellshill Speaker.

• The Daily Dispatch wrote about South African Thandile Zonke's selection as a member of the 12-man SA wheelchair basketball squad. And The Sowetan wrote about Achmat Hassiem, 26, who was attacked by a shark in August 2006 and lost part of his right foot in the process and will compete in the 100m butterfly and 400m freestyle in Beijing. It will be the first time that he competes outside South Africa.


• Paralympics high jumper Jeff Skiba discusses Olympic hopeful Oscar Pistorius with ESPN. Skiba, who is also an amputee, hopes to qualify for the U.S. Olympic trials in 2012.


• The Evening Times in Glasgow, Scotland lauds the four Scotsmen on its Paralympics football team: Jonathan Paterson, Greame Paterson, Mark Robertson and Keiran Martin.


• The London Free Press in Canada profiles local Paralympian Megan Muscat, who will compete in the 100- and 200-metre events.