An Unqualified Success, at Least in London

The wheelchair racer Joshua George competed in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London and wrote for the 2012 London blog. Readers can continue to follow him on his Web site, joshgeorgeracing.com

LONDON — The London Paralympics ended with a series of bangs. Whereas the opening ceremony sought to counter the magnitude and scale of the Beijing Games with style and substance, the closing ceremony threw the scale out the window. The program revolved around Coldplay, a popular band from this rock ‘n’ roll-infused nation, hammering out tunes from center stage. And its lead singer, Chris Martin, tapped his mega-super-international-rock-star-club connections to persuade Rihanna and Jay-Z to drop by the Olympic Stadium to sing a few songs.

I skipped out on the closing ceremony in Athens and cannot recall a single instant from the closing ceremony in Beijing, but I guarantee I will never forget London’s. Even in my energy-sapped state, having just finished a 64-turn maze of a marathon course that left me shattered with blood-glucose levels in the subbasement a few hours earlier, I was blown away by the spectacle surrounding me.

It was the most successful Paralympic Games in history, to a point where it could have forever changed the way the Paralympics are perceived.