It is probably impossible to pinpoint the moment the Paralympic Games truly found their place on the Australian sporting landscape.<\/p>\n
But \u2014 if retired journalist and ABC Sport legend Karen Tighe was forced to try \u2014 she would point to the evening of October 22, 2000.<\/p>\n
Four days into the Sydney Paralympics, and with the Olympic colour, atmosphere, and excitement of the previous month emphatically transferred, Australia’s most famous Paralympian was lining up for the final of her most anticipated event.<\/p>\n
Louise Sauvage, who would finish her Paralympic career with nine gold medals, was favourite for the 800-metre T54 wheelchair race.<\/p>\n
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Louise Sauvage was one of the stars of the 2000 Games. (Getty Images: Nick Laham\/ALLSPORT)<\/p>\n
Having competed in Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996, Sauvage was already a Paralympic superstar, but the Sydney Games would make her a household name.<\/p>\n
The 800m was hers to lose, and Australia knew it \u2014 having watched her win gold at a demonstration of the event at a packed Stadium Australia during the Olympics.<\/p>\n
“There was this huge crowd (for the wheelchair race demonstration) while the Olympics were on \u2026 the buzz, my god,” Tighe told ABC Sport.<\/p>\n
“You could just see the people thinking, ‘Wow, let’s watch more of this!'”<\/p>\n
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Louise Sauvage claimed gold in the 800m T54 during the Olympics. (Getty Images: Nick Wilson\/ALLSPORT)<\/p>\n
So, by the time the event proper rolled around, the anticipation had built to a level never reached in Australian Para sport before.<\/p>\n
A collision over the airwaves<\/p>\n
For the first time, the Games were being broadcast live on Australian television.<\/p>\n
Channel 7, the Olympic broadcaster, had declined to broadcast the 2000 Paralympics, opening the door for the ABC to continue the coverage it had begun at the Barcelona Games in 1992.<\/p>\n
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The ABC began its Paralympic coverage in 1992. (Getty Images: Gray Mortimore\/ALLSPORT)<\/p>\n
Whereas Tighe was part of a skeleton team that provided highlights packages from Barcelona and Atlanta, in Sydney she fronted a collection of experienced commentators and reporters that broadcasted over 35 hours of television coverage.<\/p>\n
It was a big step forward for the Paralympic movement in Australia, with over 8 million metropolitan and 4 million regional viewers tuning in to the Games.<\/p>\n
Twenty-five years on, it is easy to overlook just how monumental that level of coverage was.<\/p>\n
Long before the days of streaming and smartphones, the 2000 Games took place in a world where even the auxiliary free to air channels and the now humble set-top box were yet to launch.<\/p>\n
For those 12 days in October, Para sport owned a substantial share of the Australian public’s nightly entertainment options.<\/p>\n
Paralympic athletes 25 years after Sydney Games<\/a><\/p>\n The Sydney Paralympic was a watershed moment for the Paralympic movement. A quarter of a century later, some of its biggest stars reflect on the Games that changed everything.<\/p>\n But on October 22, the evening of Sauvage’s much anticipated event, there was a collision brewing<\/p>\n With the clock creeping towards the hour, it was clear that Sauvage’s race was set to run into the most sacred of ABC time slots \u2014 7pm.<\/p>\n In 2000, even hell or high water would have struggled to push back the nightly news.<\/p>\n Could a wheelchair race?<\/p>\n “They delayed the news because of that event,” Tighe said.<\/p>\n “That was a huge thing back then \u2014 not to be going up to the news and having that break and coming back, wow.”<\/p>\n Louise Sauvage was a clear favourite for the event. (Getty Images: Nick Laham\/ALLSPORT)<\/p>\n Ultimately, Sauvage claimed silver in the race, pipped at the line by her main rival, Canadian Chantal Petitclerc.<\/p>\n Although far from a disaster, it was a disappointing result for Sauvage, but one that was avenged by her winning of two gold medals later in the Games<\/a>.<\/p>\n For the ABC, the Games were a resounding success, with the closing and opening ceremonies taking the top two spots for the network’s most-watched programs of that year.<\/p>\n The switch to commercial television<\/p>\n The last Paralympics the ABC would broadcast was London 2012.<\/p>\n Those Games were widely viewed as the next of the watershed moments for the movement, with the UK’s Channel 4 providing comprehensive and progressive domestic television coverage.<\/p>\n Its “thanks for the warm-up” poster campaign, executed in the gap between the Olympics ending and the Paralympics starting, is still remembered fondly today, while the network’s “Meet the Superhumans” TV advert was an early viral hit.<\/p>\n For Tighe, who was once again was part of the ABC’s coverage, the success of Channel 4’s broadcast marked the beginning of a new era in Paralympic coverage across the world.<\/p>\n “That was our last Paralympics in terms of ABC TV covering it,” Tighe said.<\/p>\n “And, as much as it was so sad because it was such a joy working on it, it was clear that the Paralympics had become commercial television.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n