Paralympics 2012: The second chapter of London's amazing summer of sport begins with lavish opening ceremony
The second chapter of the London 2012 summer will begin on Wednesday when the Paralympics opening ceremony takes place in front of the first packed house of what promises to be a sold-out Games.
Spiritual home: Sally Haynes, who competed at the first Paralympics in 1960, carries the torch at Stoke Mandeville Stadium
By Paul Kelso 11:18PM BST 28 Aug 2012
Organisers have confirmed that 2.4 million tickets have been sold for the 11 days of Paralympic competition, including every seat at the Olympic stadium for the opening ceremony. That includes 800 tickets handed to military personnel and police to acknowledge their work this summer.
Just 100,000 tickets for the rest of the Games remain, and these will be released in batches of around 10,000 each day, prompting predictions that these will be the “most-watched” Paralympics in the history of an event that has its roots in the first competition between injured servicemen and women at Stoke Mandeville in 1948.
On Tuesday night, at the spinal injuries hospital in that Buckinghamshire village, the Paralympic flame began the final leg of its journey to the Olympic Stadium, and will bring London to a standstill as it completes a 95-mile 24-hour trip on Wednesday.
Baroness Grey-Thompson and Paralympic swimmer Chris Holmes will carry the flame through Trafalgar Square with former boxer Michael Watson, and a team of injured servicemen from Walking the Wounded nominated by Prince Harry will carry the flame down Whitehall.
The flame will ultimately light the cauldron in the stadium after a lavish opening ceremony, with 166 petals ignited to represent the competing nations as opposed to the 205 that took part in the Olympic Games.
That still makes it the largest Paralympics in terms of nations ever staged, with a total of 4,300 athletes, 2,700 team officials and 1,200 Games officials contributing to 20 sports played over 584 sessions in 19 venues over 11 days, watched by 6,500 media and unprecedented crowds.
The embrace of the British public, so evident in the triumphant staging of the Olympic Games, will, say organisers, validate the Paralympics as a top-flight sporting event in its own right, as well as offering a chance to transform attitudes to disability in the UK.
“This is the second-biggest event you can stage in the world, and it will be the most watched Paralympic Games ever,” London organising committee chief executive Paul Deighton said on Tuesday. “If you were to look at all the there is one thing where our performance as a country has outperformed everyone else, it is the ticket sales for the Paralympics.
“The extent to which the British public have embraced the event and want to be there is amazing. It is the biggest difference from previous Games.”
Deighton and his teams have been focused on transforming the athletes’ village and the venues from Olympics-mode, with two new venues, at Eton Manor which will host wheelchair tennis, and cycling at Brands Hatch in Kent, ready for use.
As well as fresh sporting heroes validated by huge crowds, organisers are promising that the Games will help transform attitudes to disability in the UK and around the world. It is a major challenge for a sporting event, even in a country as apparently advanced in terms of disability provision as the UK. Fewer than half of those with disabilities in the UK are in employment, and more than half live below the poverty line.
Deighton said he was convinced the event would be a powerful corrective to prejudice: “We have tried to make sure as an organising committee that we include everyone. I don’t think of the Paralympics in terms of disability rights, I think of it in terms of broader social exclusion, and it is extremely powerful in that regard.”
Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt said he was confident that the achievements of athletes in the coming days would change perceptions.
“I think the Games will lead to a much more positive perception of disability among Britons. It is a really big moment to change perceptions,” he said. “It is a very significant moment for our country. We have more athletes from more countries, more tickets sold, more hours of broadcast than ever before, and more inspiration than ever.”
Sports minister Hugh Robertson said there would also be a dividend for disability sport in the UK. “We have guaranteed funding for ParalympicsGB until Rio 2016, the School Games will feature disabled athletes for the first time, our governing bodies are better structured to provide disability sport, and we are starting to understand better what it takes to be a Paralympic coach.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/paralympic-sport/9504917/Paralympics-2012-The-second-chapter-of-Londons-amazing-summer-of-sport-begins-with-lavish-opening-ceremony.html
