Homebush Bay

Event 1: Swimming.

Bought a hoodie cause I’m super pumped.
It’s all held at Sydney Olympic Park.
Jess got us free tickets through Legacy so cheering.
It was open seating so first in, best dressed.
We sat in front of the finish line, very happy with our spot.

As we showed up I became quite emotional. I just felt so proud.
Of everyone, not just the Australians.
A man was being present a medal. He only has 1 arm. He had lost the 3 other limbs.
I was so proud and honored.
The music they played didn’t help the tear jerking.

It was great to watch and a well run event.
The dance and karaoke cams were cringe worthy but they had time to fill in..

I think it’s 17 nations all up.
A few what I consider randoms but I prefer odd places rather than the usual USA, UK, France etc.
Estonia, Romania, Afghanistan, Jordon, Georgia, Iraq and the Ukraine were there too.

I didn’t feel the needs to go for the Aussies. I went for everyone or the most handicapped.
There were 4 classes - they could have done a better job explaining the differences cause I had to google it.
It was groups A,B,C & D.
A was for people will problems with 3 limbs and/or spine issues
B was 2 affected limbs and/or spine issues
C was 1 affected limb and/or visual impairment etc
D was for minor physical injury or mental health disorders such as PTSD.

We saw the freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke. We left before the butterfly because as enjoyable as it was it became quite repetitive and the same athletes kept coming back.

I felt like we could leave because the 1 limbed guy competed in the breaststroke - he was up against an Australian.
I was super impressed when he opted to fling himself off the dive board rather than just start in the water.
The crowd was obvs going for the Aussie but I wanted the other guy to win (from UK)
The UK man was winning the whole time but it was a verrrrrryyyy close finish. It was within a seconds difference but my dude one. He pulled himself out of the pool rather than swimming to the edge. Dude got no time to treat himself as handicapped.
I was so pleased for him.
His team came over and he started to cry. I saw him mouth “I’m stoked”
Then they hugged him.
My eyes stung.
He dragged himself away rather than use a wheelchair.

Me and Will couldn’t help but giggle at the medal ceremonies - they had different people for present for each event.

Who would you prefer?
The CEO of Land Rover or Mark Donaldson - a victorian cross recipient.

Like honestly 😂😂
I’d feel ripped off .

We left once the dude got his medal.

I liked the atmosphere. Once finished the race the competitors would swim back down the pool to cheer home the other competitors in the next lane - no matter what county they were from.

Event 2: Athletics.

Not as good as the swimming. Not nearly as efficient - lotsss of time wasting.
However they had the big screen explaining each races competitors disabilities.

We basically only saw people do the 100m and a dew shot out throws.

We did see 100m done by people without arms, people in the 3 wheeled race chairs and one girl had a a blade runner leg.

There was heaps of false starts but no one ever got penalized.

One race was super awkies cause they false started and so the alarm went off but one dude might have had a hearing problem so he just kept sprinting - it took people waving flags at him to run onto the track for him to stop. He ran about 80m before he realized 😅😅😅😅
Awkward walk back to the line for him.
David Beckham was somewhere there which is cool. Didn’t see him though - it was a good turn out.
Will was cranky and had to work early the next day and as I was cold and had see what I came for me left.

Event 3: Closing ceremony.

So Jess had this ridiculous idea to bring Jaxon.
Anyone who has met him knows that that is stupid but as it was a free ticket I kept my gob shut.
We chased Jaxon everywhere around Olympic Park trying to find the legacy people - we found them eventually but not where they said they would be..

Jax was screaming in the line ... alas.

We did eventually make it to our seats.

Long story short:
- good turn out.
- Prince Harry and Megan were there. So was the beckhams and the prime minister (Scott Morrison for the moment - might change next week 😅🙄😂)
We all stood up and cheered as the athletes walked in - Jax like clapping at first but it was 8 and he was tired and got over it fast.
The lady behind us was wonderful - she took him of us and danced with him for a bit.
Jax threw a cup at a person, shook peoples seats, screamed etc etc.
not his fault - he is 2 - shouldn’t have come..

Anywho - Colin Hay performed “I come from a land down under” so I’m really pleased to have seen that.

The premier - Gladys blah blah got up to do a speech and Jaxon was fucking screaming his lungs out. I have never heard such an echo - I was so embarrassed. Jess was just getting angry at him which wasn’t helpful and telling him to be quite. I gelt bad for everyone around us.
I suggested we leave.
She took her time accepting that Jaxon wouldn’t “behave”
She kept saying he was naughty.
Now, while a total pain in the ass and frequently naughty, screaming cause it’s past bed time, while your mother tried to muzzle you in a packed stadium with LOUD music is not being naughty. IMO.

Drove home. Only saw 20 mins of a 1.5hr show.

I watched Prince Harry’s speech on the Telly when home.Read more