(Toronto, Ont.) One month has passed since Team Canada won gold at the 2014 Women’s World Wheelchair Basketball Championship at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto, Ont. and host Wheelchair Basketball Canada is pleased to announce that the event proved to be a tremendous, record-breaking online success.
The milestone event generated more than 38 million media impressions with multi-platform media coverage in Canada, including online, print, television and radio coverage. Daily video highlights were made available through SendtoNews and were viewed 2.3 million times.
More than 71,000 people from 71 countries tuned into the webcast of the world championship as all 44 games were streamed live through the online platforms of CBC Sports and SportsCanada.tv. The figure marks a 400 per cent increase in viewership compared to the Women’s U25 World Championship hosted by Wheelchair Basketball Canada in 2011.
Wheelchair Basketball Canada smashed its previous audience benchmarks as more than 20,000 people visited the official event website at 2014wheelchairbasketball.com to watch the games and find the latest news and results. Over a one-month period surrounding the event, the website logged more than 60,000 visits, more than doubling the previous record.
“We are thrilled to raise the profile of these elite athletes and connect with wheelchair basketball fans in Canada and around the world,” said Tournament Director Wendy Gittens. “We constantly strive to create more awareness for the sport and the greater Paralympic movement and we look forward to building an even greater global audience on the road to the Toronto 2015 Parapan American Games and the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.”
“We look forward to building an even greater global audience on the road to the Toronto 2015 Parapan American Games and the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games”
“We look forward to building an even greater global audience on the road to the Toronto 2015 Parapan American Games and the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games”
The Wheelchair Basketball Canada Facebook page picked up 631 new fans to break the 8,000 ‘like’ threshold and more than 17,500 users engaged with the Facebook content.
Athletes, coaches, and fans around the world all engaged with the event on Twitter by using the hashtag #2014wcbasketball in their tweets more than 5,800 times.
Exclusive video content and game highlights generated more than 18,000 views combined on the Wheelchair Basketball Canada and International Paralympic Committee’s YouTube channels.
Team Canada captured its fifth world championship gold medal in team history and a seventh consecutive podium finish at the event. Germany secured the silver medal while the Netherlands took home the bronze medal.
The tournament was the largest women’s world championship in history, featuring teams from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Peru and the United States.
For more information please visit www.2014wheelchairbasketball.com / #2014wcbasketball.
About the Event
Wheelchair Basketball Canada hosted the 2014 Women’s World Wheelchair Basketball Championship from June 20-28, 2014 at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto, Ont. The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) event featured 12 competing teams and marked the largest women’s world championship in the history of the sport.