The Paralympics took place in Paris, France this year two weeks after the Olympics. It featured 22 different sports, all the way from swimming to fencing. For the first time, the events were completely covered by broadcasting networks worldwide. 

Some students expressed excitement over the event, such as Cara Touey ’28 who said she watched track and field athlete Hunter Woodhall. “I made sure I watched his event,” she said, “His wife won [gold in the long jump at the Olympics]… so I wanted to see how he would do.” 

Despite the excitement from some people, the Paralympics still did not bring in the viewership of the summer Olympics. SportsPro Media recorded that approximately 15.4 million people watched the Paralympics compared to the 30.4 million that watched the Olympics.  

Beck Greenspoon ’27 said, “I didn’t watch the Paralympics or the Olympics because I’m not really a sports or TV person in general,” they said. “But if I saw a clip on Instagram I would stick around if I thought it was cool.” Other more sports-inclined students reported they watched the Olympics but not the Paralympics.  

Nevertheless, the Paralympics gained more representation than in previous games. According to SportsPro, in the U.S. live coverage of the events had an average of 162,000 viewers, which is 113% increase in viewers compared to the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo. With the recent increase in Paralympic viewership numbers, there is all the reason to think that viewership will continue to grow for the games in Los Angeles in 2028.