STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Paralympic Medalist Muffy Davis is back in the Wood River Valley after taking part in the 2021 Summer Paralympics going on in Tokyo.

Davis attended the Paralympics not as a monoski racer or handcycle racer as she has in the past, but as a member of the International Paralympic Committee’s Governing Board.

She didn’t get to enjoy the culture of Japan because of restrictions imposed by the COVID pandemic. But she did get to be one of the few people to sit in the stands, which were off limits to the general public as a health precaution.

She was excited by all the records that fell and the amount of TV coverage given the Paralympics. Twelve world records were broken on the first two days alone and Tokyo 2020 set the record for the most athletes set to take part with 4,403. There also were 1,853 females--11 percent more than the number in Rio 2016.

NBCUniversal provided a record 1,200 hours of Paralympic coverage over 13 days of the Games, including the first-ever primetime hours on NBC.

“When I was competing, we had five hours of TV coverage,” she said.