Uplifting tribute to super-powered Paralympic stars

Rising Phoenix, 2020, Netflix documentary, 1hr 45min

I loved this documentary after being lured into watching because of its eye-catching title. I thought for a minute it was to do with Coventry! Not a bit of it.

The film tells us how sporting heroes are made at the Olympic Games.....but perhaps the real heroes go to the Paralympics.

Maybe we're all a little too flippant in our viewing of these games featuring people with disabilities. We don't take the time to consider these remarkable contestants and their back stories.

Do many of us even know that the Paralympics grew out of the work done at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, where staff wanted to offer some hope and purpose to the wounded soldiers coming back from the Second World War?

Or that these alternative Olympics were at first not promoted by countries like Greece - home of the marathon - and Brazil?

This engaging documentary will be of interest to all the family as we witness the true meaning of the super-powers people can find in themselves.

The programme was not only uplifting and motivational but managed to give viewers a taste of the sheer force and determination so brilliantly demonstrated by the athletes themselves.

From now on I will forever support these alternative Olympic Games and, provided they can go ahead this year, will certainly be looking at them with a different, better-informed eye.