Same problem with Japan, who were the hosts, obviously… Though they seemed to view the Paralympians with even more of a dismissive sneer

Are you sure about that? Because that doesn't match my experience when talking to any Japanese people. Maybe that's just compared to Americans who couldn't care less about the Olympics, and don't even know what Paralympics is... but many Japanese actually treat it as a legitimate sporting contest. Some of it airs on TV like the Olympics, and the news stations give regular updates on the results. People might not know individual competitors like they do famous olympians, but they anticipate the results and add the totals for Olympics + Paralympics together to see how well Japan did vs. other countries.

You certainly cant gauge national excitement for an event based on how well the athletes perform.