‘Absolutely buzzing’: Paralympic officials say these Games will produce something special

Paralympic officials say these Games will be special as the energy from the Paralympians has the village ‘absolutely buzzing,’ while the infamous cardboard beds are back in the limelight.

Officials are buoyed by the excitement of athletes in the Paralympic Village and Australian swimmer’s Col Pearse’s social media antics are showing what it’s all about.

While the cardboard beds provided to athletes were a hot topic during the Olympics, the 21-year-old Victorian shared his own review of the beds to his Instagram.

The video he has titled “Man vs Paralympic Village Bed” sees Pearse fly through the air to land face first on the bed before jumping up and down to test its durability.

“Now we’re in the Olympic and Paralympic Village, I thought I’d show you what the beds are like.

“First and foremost it is cardboard, it is quite literally a box with a mattress supported by more cardboard boxes.”

Col Pearse is striving for back-to-back Paralympic podiums. Picture: Michael Klein

Speaking at a press conference in Paris, the International Paralympic Committee’s chief brand and communications officer Craig Spence declared something special could be on the cards when the Games start on August 29 AEST.

To date, over 1.9m tickets have been sold.

“I think you will struggle to find any happier place on earth right now than the Paralympic village. It is absolutely buzzing,” he said.

“We want to make this a spectacular Paralympic Games. We’ve got a platform to do something pretty special here.

“You’ve got so many athletes who have trained for years to be here, this is the pinnacle of their careers and when the athletes are happy you get phenomenal performances.

“I think you are going to something very special from a sporting point of view here at the Games.”

The Paris Paralympics will see a record number of females, 1983, compete beating the previous number in Tokyo three years ago.

Competition will include 27 countries who have brought more female athletes than men to the French capital.

“I think that’s a tremendous achievement bearing in mind our first Games were in 1960.

“To almost achieve gender parity in such a short time is really encouraging.”