Congratulations from the Chef de Mission on a job well done

The daily Australian team newsletter, ‘Banjo’s Bugle’, enabled the team to share the highs and lows of the Athens summer Paralympics. On the final day of the Games, Paul Bird, the Australian team Chef de Mission, reflected on the achievements of the team and acknowledged the role played by all members. You can read Bird’s words in this extract from Banjo’s Bugle. That night, the closing ceremony was a very modest affair. There had been rumours that the organising committee had literally run out of money for the event. In the end, the deaths of 7 schoolchildren in a bus crash on the way to Athens for the ceremony was the reason that the ceremony was curtailed and the Athens games ended without the now traditional fanfare.