Liam Malone, whose exploits on the track, finishing just one shade of medal short of what Usain Bolt achieved a few weeks before, received his just desserts, but even a television channel besotted with rugby and happy to feast on supplied images from around the world could hardly ignore him.
Sophie Pascoe, who unlike Malone has a three-Games history of medal-winning performances, did not receive the same degree of respect.
One night last week her second gold medal swim of these Games came in fifth on the six o'clock news, behind an anti-mining protest at Towai (a bit of a fizzer, given that no one from the mining company was there to be abused but leading all the same), a Colmar Brunton poll that delivered the hardly shocking news that National was still streets ahead of Labour, a fatal house fire in Canterbury and a story about proposed changes to the firearms licence testing regime.
Then came Pascoe, and even then the thrust of the story wasn't the fact that she was one medal closer to becoming our most successful Paralympian ever but that she had lost her training partner to cancer shortly before the Games.
That evening's edition of the sports news managed to fill its allotted time without mentioning her, or the Games, at all, and by that stage tatty old bronze medals barely rated a mention either.
Meanwhile Kimberlee Downs was battling womanfully to cover what was happening in Rio second time around. Talk about mission impossible.
It has to be said that she did a pretty good job, but what happened to the resources committed by TVNZ for the Olympics?
Every staffer with a pulse was in Rio then, to tell us what might happen, what had happened, what could have happened, to interview competitors who made the podium and a swag of those who didn't.
The lengths TVNZ News didn't go to to cover the Paralympics spoke volumes about how they rate with the organisation that boasts, however absurdly, that it is New Zealanders' major source of news.
Truth is, these Games were treated as a slightly interesting sideshow on a slow day that struggled to compete with soccer from England, tennis from America, almost any other sport that could be picked up from other sources with no effort and presumably at minimal cost.
The consumers of news deserved much better than that, and so did the athletes who represented them.
There is absolutely no question that many of those who competed in Rio put every bit as much effort and sacrifice into their preparation as did their able-bodied counterparts, perhaps more.
Liam Malone's father pointed that out, saying the pain his son had endured to earn his place in sporting history far exceeded anything that any able-bodied athlete could begin to imagine.
But while Malone's exploits were celebrated, he, and to a lesser degree Pascoe, were the exceptions.
Most of the other medallists will come home as anonymous as they were when they left, despite the fact that they can count themselves as the best, second or third best in their discipline in the world.
Every news organisation, even the Northland Age, has to prioritise what it offers its audience.
That can be difficult, given that a newspaper's columns, and a radio station and television channel's time and resources, are finite.
Those decisions won't always please everyone, but we are entitled to expect more than we sometimes receive.
The biggest, most consistent loser in terms of gaining media recognition in this country is women's sport.
That was never better illustrated than by last year's awarding of Wisden's leading female cricketer in the world title to our very own Suzie Bates.
Her achievement was noted by TVNZ News as a footnote, almost an afterthought to the fact that the male title had gone to Kane Williamson.
It's hardly surprising that female athletes in this country, and the organisations that represent them, complain from time to to time that they don't get a fair shake of the stick.
Even the national game misses out.
Media commentators regularly describe the national provincial championship as the foundation of rugby in this country, the breeding ground for the Super Rugby franchises and from there to the All Blacks, yet it is all but ignored by TVNZ and other major media.
Certainly anyone who has Sky can watch the premiership and championship games as they are played, but the Heartland championship clearly has no news value at all.
You can go to the NPC website to find out who's winning and who isn't, but as far as New Zealanders' self-professed main source of news is concerned it doesn't exist.
Surely there is more interest in this country's national sport than there is in the EPL, the IPL, Formula One, tennis grand slams that don't involve New Zealanders and much of the other sports 'news' that is dished up night after night?
Is there no room one night a week to tell us that Wairarapa Bush beat King Country 28-18 on Friday night? How long would it take to tell us who looks like taking out the trophies? Can you even name those trophies?
Or is it more important to give us pictures and commentary for Chelsea's 1-2 loss to Liverpool?
This is about more than accurately judging viewers' sporting interests.
Media coverage is oxygen to any sporting code, especially those that don't involve All Blacks.
We all know what bolt out of the blue success has done for various codes in the past, including New Zealand's two appearances at football's World Cup finals and the phenomenal run by the men's basketball team at the world championships some years ago.
Suddenly kids were kicking and dribbling balls as if their lives depended on it.
Infatuation with the All Blacks is understandable, but it has gone too far when bulletins are dominated by interminable predictions and analyses, and stories about about what the players did on their day off from training, at the expense of the game itself, and other codes.
The media have a clear role to play in nurturing sport in this country, but there is more to the Paralympics than that.
These Games were not just a sporting spectacle (and better covered than ever before in terms of live programming, great for insomniacs), but proof positive that with hard work and determination even the greatest obstacles can be overcome.
Inspirational, newsworthy stuff.
Three weeks ago every medal would have made the headlines. Beats professional sport any day.
