Jim Williams » Paralympics special is must see TV on NBC

NBC Producer David Michaels (yes, Al’s brother) has crafted a wonderfully inspiring film on the Paralympics Beijing 2008.

It is a special that I think every fan of sports — or just competition — needs to watch. Yes, we saw the Olympics games that Michael Phelps stared in but this is the Paralympics where the athletes are disabled in name only.

The 90-minute film, narrated by Bob Costas and airing today at 2:30 p.m. on NBC4, does an awesome job of capturing the dedication and the true athletic abilities of these men and women that, in many cases, outshines the accomplishments of their able body counterparts.

Swimmer Jessica Long of Baltimore was one of the featured athletes in the film. Her story is amazing — starting with her being the youngest Paralympian ever at the age of 12 with a gold-medal performance at the 2004 games in Athens. In Beijing she would take home six medals — four gold, a silver and a bronze. In the film, she talked about how sports would not have been such a big deal to her if she had legs. It was her disability that had driven her to be an inspiration to so many young women.

Also featured in the film was another local woman Tatyana McFadden of Clarkesville, Md., a wheelchair racer. The young Howard County woman is known for competing in track meets against able body competitors. McFadden came to Beijing with a silver medal as the youngest member of the 2004 Athens track and field team. She scored her second straight silver medal along with three bronze in Beijing.

The film shows many winners and losers, it addresses the 83 million disabled Chinese — which is equal to the population of Germany. It also shows how the country embraced and supported the Paralympics and that even the Great Wall of China has been made wheelchair accessible.

I know that Sunday means NFL football for most sports fan, but if you can’t watch it live then TiVo it or set your DVR’s because it well worth your time.

Also every night at 7 from Nov. 10-17, there will be prime time replays of the 2008 Paralympics on Universal Sports, which is on both Comcast and Cox cable.

Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on dcexaminer.com.