大象传媒

The 2012 Olympics have a serious problem with the global financial crisis.

Companies can postpone expensive projects during a credit crunch but London Games officials have a fixed deadline - July 2012. They have to carry on building the venues and trying to sign sponsorship deals despite the problems and it's going to get much tougher.

So, in these days of belt-tightening, maybe it's time for some home truths about some of the rumours flying around about the Olympic Park.

An Olympiad too late for many observers, is finally going to get the chance to see what a Dutch double of tough talk and know-how can do for the entire British athletics team.

The man who coached Denise Lewis to heptathlon gold in Sydney - and perhaps even more notably made after her bronze-medal display in Athens - Van Commenee will be named as head coach by UK Athletics (UKA) on Tuesday.

On the face of it, Van Commenee's return to Britain is the kind of story we will see at a dozen football clubs before the leaves start to fall from the trees.

The team fails to live up to expectations, the mob demands a sacrifice, the man in the dugout gets it in the neck. For UKA, those expectations were five medals in Beijing and .

But this story (and British athletics in general) is more complicated than that.

The other day I spent a fascinating morning watching able-bodied children sit down in wheelchairs and try out Paralympic sport.

The coaches organising the wheelchair basketball session were disabled and some of the kids involved also had disabilities.

But the training session in Hackney in east London did more to teach able-bodied people about the challenges - AND FUN - of Paralympic sport than anything I have seen for a long time.

It was all part of initiatives up and down the country marking the following the Beijing Games.

All good things must come to an end.

If you're in the UK you will hopefully have enjoyed the ability to watch live, streaming coverage of the Olympics and Paralympics over the past month.

Alongside live coverage, the 大象传媒 Sport website has offered hundreds of highlights sequences covering every sport, available on demand.

But on Tuesday 23 September the magic evaporates - the videos will all disappear. You have just a few days left to gorge yourselves on the very best of Beijing.

is a big fan of any kayak, not just the kind in which he wins Olympic gold.

The world and also enjoys a spot of sea kayaking off the South African coast.

"I love going out on the sea. If you've got the skills and the fitness, you can enjoy it and mess around, and learn new skills," he says. "Like shark evading."

We have had before, but kayakers racing sharks is a new one.

Many people, usually the athletes, describe the Paralympics as a roller-coaster of emotions.

In the privileged position of reporting on a Games, you see those emotions played out on a daily basis and you can't help but be affected by what you see unfold in front of you.

Whether it is seeing superb human achievements, triumph over adversity or just plain grit and determination, each Games has so many memorable moments.

We asked some of the 大象传媒 team covering the Games about their moments to remember from the Beijing Paralympics and we would love to know what yours were.

The of the Beijing Paralympics proved to be a glorious celebration and a fitting end to what has been a magnificent Games.

The Chinese started with spectacular fireworks and ended with just as dazzling a pyrotechnic display to give London plenty of food for thought as they plan for their showpiece events in four years' time.

Great Britain's end of Games report from the Beijing Paralympics makes for satisfactory reading.

The team was the best-prepared to have gone to a Games and had benefited hugely from National Lottery cash.

Pre-Games, ParalympicsGB chief Phil Lane had said publicly that the team would be scrapping for top-three in the medals table and were hoping for 35-40 golds - although UK Sport had set a slightly more ambitious target of 112 medals.

In the end , eight more than in Athens four years ago, with 42 golds, compared to 35 last time. They held off the challenge of the US, a fast-improving Ukraine, and Australia, to finish second in the table.

There are just not enough words to describe the emotions that I have experienced during the .

There have been highs and lows, some phenomenal performances and lots of tears (happiness, frustration, anger, and more happiness), and that has just been in the , let along anywhere else.

David Weir did a great job on the track on the final night of action, , and overall it was the best night of athletics for the team.

David came into the Games with Britain's best chance of winning athletics gold medals and a lot was expected of him.

This was definitely the best Paralympic swimming meet I have ever been to in terms of quality of the races.

There were some great individual gold medals - three from people who have been here before, , and and they came back and did a good job.

And three from first timers , and of course , plus the relay as well.

Maybe it was national pride or just a real desire to see the team reach the final, but I really felt the could do it and finally end 12 years of hurt with a return to the final of the Paralympic basketball competition.

Alas, it was not to be and the culprits were the old enemy, the mighty Aussie Rollers. ('Flaming Galahs' I believe is how our antipodean friends would put it.)

Mind you, we did play like a bunch of "Great Galuts" for the game. (I must point out that I learnt all my Australian from Alf Stewart in Home and Away).

Giving the Rollers too much of a head start, GB ultimately paid the price for poor ball movement and sloppy defence, especially on Justin Eveson, who punished us by scoring 22 points.

The box office big-hitters at the Olympics or will always be the athletes, swimmers, rowers and cyclists.

Over the last few days, hasn't let us down. finally grabbed a slice of gold pie in the Bird's Nest, 13-year-old swimmer got us all blubbering after putting her school books down to win two golds, and there was blind cyclist glorious win in the velodrome. And before I get a whacking from a rowing blade, there washistoric win.

But listen up, there's a Paralympic sport that may not be on many of your radars, but has certainly been rocking my world. It's got violence, bags of skill and more bangs than a Guy Ritchie re-make of (Just a play on the word 'bang', in case you were thinking Dick Van Dyke had played the sport).