Eleven days in September: Covering the 2016 Paralympic Games

Story posted September 21, 2016 in Sports, 2016 Paralympics Games by Emily Peacock / John Curley Center for Sports Journalism

For 11 days in September, students and faculty from Penn State's John Curley Center for Sports Journalism traveled to Rio de Janeiro to cover the 2016 Paralympic Games for The Associated Press.

Although the Paralympics is the world's third largest sporting event (only the Olympics and the World Cup are bigger) it receives scant coverage in the U.S. market, which is focused on the final stretch of the baseball season and the beginning of college and pro football.

By comparison, thousands of American reporters flocked to Rio to cover the Olympics in August, while only 52 accredited American journalists covered the Paralympics. Of those 52, 11 came from the University of Georgia's  Grady School of Journalism and 13 from Penn State's Curley Center for Sports Journalism. The Georgia team began covering the Paralympics a few days before the games began. The Penn State team arrived on day four and covered the games through the closing ceremonies.

The experiences of the Penn State team are chronicled in a series of Storify posts below. Each segment uses social media generated by the students and faculty to document their journey through Rio.

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