It has taken a little help from Icelandic songstress Bjork, but crowds at the London 2012 Paralympics are keeping a lid on their excitement for blind sports that need to be played in silence.
At the goalball, five-a-side soccer and blind jumping events, spectators have had to stay quiet to allow competitors to hear the ball or their coaches’ instructions.
The 6,500-seater Copper Box venue was dubbed the “box that rocks” during the Olympic handball, with its intimate nature and pumped-up fans making for a noisy atmosphere.
Photo: Reuters
However, it is now a place of reverential hush, invoked by the playing of Bjork’s It’s Oh So Quiet, with all its “Shhhh” sounds, to encourage the crowd to settle down for the goalball.
“We have to focus purely on sound, so that means we pick up on everything. So we have to concentrate,” said Canada’s Brendan Gaulin, after a 5-4 win over South Korea. “For the first goal there was definitely a baby crying in the corner and it made it tough to stop that shot.”
The three-versus-three sport, played with two giant goals at each end, sees players roll a ball with two bells in it. The defending players react to the sound and try and keep the ball out.
Belgium’s Glenn van Thournout said the hush spreads quite easily.
“Humans are flock animals. If the person next to you is silent then you stay silent,” he said.
Meanwhile, across at the Riverbank Arena, the crowds at the blind five-a-side soccer are urged to let rip during breaks in play but button it during play.
Fans are told it’s their “last chance to make maximum noise” before a match kicks off.
The crowd are whipped up as the players come out to the driving sound of Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir, and cheer heartily as the players are introduced, before falling silent. Buses can be heard trundling along a service road behind.
The sport is played with a rattling ball and while the four outfield players are visually impaired and wear eye shades to ensure fairness, the goalkeepers may be fully sighted.
Players shout the word “voy” to indicate where they are. At set pieces, coaches tap the posts so they know where to aim.
“We could feel the support as we walked into the arena and even all the way throughout the game,” Great Britain’s Daniel English said. “We could tell they wanted to make noise but that’s a natural reaction as a player is coming in to shoot. It’s different coming to blind football where you cannot have chanting all the way through.”
“It’s a new experience and, obviously, they are learning as much as we are but we don’t mind that,” English said.
Even at the normally raucous Olympic Stadium, the hush is catching on.
The 80,000-seater venue fell silent for the men’s F11 long jump final, in which athletes with little or no vision take off aided only by the sound of their coaches’ calls.
After lining up their athlete straight on the runway, the coach stands at the take-off board, clapping a running rhythm and calling to their athletes so they can hear the distance to the line. They then jump out of the way at the last second.
At the soccer, French judoka Sandrine Martinet, who won silver in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, said she was getting the hang of the stop-start audience participation.
“It’s so frustrating to be unable to cheer during the match, but when there’s a break in play, we’re hollering,” she said.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their