Consider this: More than 1.2 million people went to the Paralympics. The men’s wheelchair basketball quarter-final between Australia and America (damn! we lost!) attracted a capacity crowd of 18,000 – more than the Olympic gold medal game (and about five times your average ARL footy crowd). Meantime, 196,073 people patiently filed into the Aquatic centre to watch nine days of Paralympic swimming – more than 2,000 more people than the eight-day Olympic meet.

After S-S-S-S-Sydney s-s-stumbles at the Olympics, Governor General William Deane gave a cracker closing ceremony speech, telling us how the last month of sport demonstrated that the things which unite humanity far outweigh the things that divide us. Citing the Koreans and East Timorese athletes he said “Let us hope that such examples will inspire and encourage peacemakers in all the world where conflict and violence exist. The Games have also helped bring us Australians closer together in ways which we shall not forget… We have been reminded of the essential strength of our national unity and how good it is to be together, to strive together and succeed together.”

The incredible 17-year-old Siobhan Paton (right), who The Echo mentioned in sport last week, went on to win six gold medals in the pool, surpassing Priya Cooper’s Atlanta haul. Siobhan has a mild intellectual disability – the result of oxygen deprivation when she was born prematurely. At one south coast school she had a bloody awful time – called a retard and spastic, she was stoned and had her head flushed down the toilet. Her one hope at the Games was that the thousands of children who delighted in watching her gold medal swims will have a different view of disabled classmates to the one she endured. Shaggy was besotted by this wonderful young woman with the cheeky grin. And when Australia finally gets around to becoming a republic, we know whose name we’ll be putting forward for president.

Despite sore paws from days of trudging around the Paralympic site, Shaggy couldn’t help but be inspired to a new fitness regime. And we were delighted to find two instructors with a similar body shape taking classes out at Homebush (above).

While we’re a little sad it’s all over, former Olympian Raylene Boyle summed it up best with her comment after Cathy Freeman won gold in the 400m. “What a relief!”

Back home and craving normality after the hustle of Homebush, Shaggy headed to Lismore Council’s meeting, having missed last week’s claims and counterclaims of conflict of interest over the pool redevelopment. As part of council’s meeting procedure, the mayor asked if any councillors had a conflict of interest to declare over the matters in the business paper. There were a few nervous laughs before silence. Then Cr Frank Swientek piped up: “Any accusations of interest?”

If you’re still wondering how to spend Cup day next Tuesday, ring Lismore Heights Bowling Club on 6624 3040, for a fashion luncheon fundraising for the Lung Support Group. And best of luck to all.

We think Australia has always trod a fine line between class and kitsch, and we must confess we always had a soft spot for Atlanta’s inflatable kangaroos. So it was good to see them back in the Great Australian Piss-take at the Paralympic closing ceremony. In a spoof that would have made John, Brian and Gina (aka The Games) proud, with the big screen proclaiming “Shock! Horror! Scandal!”, a video ran through the angst of the last five years of Games preparations. Then out came the kangaroos, chased by everything from the fire-breathing dragon at the Olympics opening, to the closing ceremony’s kewpie doll and this giant eel. But the highlight was Circus Oz performer Tim Coldwell, upside down (for the ‘Down Under’ Games), signing the nation anthem backwards, then performing ‘his’ 100 metre race backwards. “Later,” he said, “I’ll perform the Salt Lake City bid backwards – I’ll be giving back all the money and all the gifts.”

The Paralympics were seen as the laidback games (in the most laidback nation on Earth). No better proof could be found than this quintet of Aussies (above) preparing themselves for the closing ceremony.