2004 Paralympics - Athens Sep. 17 - 28

[BullNBear52]

Welcome to the Athens Paralympic Village - a brilliant place to be!
http://www.athens2004.com/athens2004/page/paralympicvillagenews?cid=6cd8c1d509afdf00VgnVCM3000002a13...

Peter Pitt

I am writing to you from the Paralympic Village Pulse offices from where we publish a daily online newspaper, which concentrates on the lives of 4,000 athletes from more than 130 nations and gives all the information they need.
Let me introduce myself: My name is Peter Pitt. For 20 years I worked for BBC TV producing documentaries as a reporter but all that stopped quite abruptly. I am disabled having suffered a stroke 5 years ago. I could not walk, talk, speak or properly see. I was hospitalised for 14 months. However, I survived to be in Athens volunteering to support this amazing Paralympic experience.

Ironically, it was only one year before my stroke that I was supervising a documentary called “Able Seaman” about a quadriplegic yachtsman, Geoff Holt. I remember meeting him and instantly forgetting about his disability. He was so charismatic, so enthusiastic. He took me to a spinal hospital at Salisbury in England where I met some paraplegics undertaking rehabilitation and talked about the immense challenges and mind-bending change into disability. Geoff had told me it was a question of balance: not being overwhelmed by your impediments and concentrating on life.

Oddly enough, I had to face many of my own challenges, but I am having the time of my life! I am half British and half Greek from my mother Aspasia Theodossi who was born in Moschato, Athens. As such, one could say that I have a dual Olympic origination in my psyche. The Paralympic Games, which originated in England at Stoke Mandeville Spinal Hospital during the 1948 London Games and the Olympic Games which started in Greece.

It’s all a question of balance. During these days I will try to give you a taste, here from the Paralympic Village, of the greatest show on earth with all the fun, the spectacles and the victories.

Peter Pitt