London Almost Ready to Go for Paralympics

With less than one year to go before the world’s eyes turn to London, the British capital is laying the finishing touches for what is set to be the biggest Paralympic Games in history.

With more than 4200 athletes from 150 countries expected to descend on Olympic Park in London’s east, the main stadium is already complete, as is the aquatic centre, velodrome and basketball centre. The international broadcast centre, which has a 20,000 person capacity, is almost complete while work continues on the Athletes’ Village to complete the interiors.

Many of the sports to be contested at next year’s Paralympic Games will actually be held outside the Olympic Park, with rowing at Eton Dorney, sailing in Weymouth, table tennis, powerlifting and judo at the ExCel Centre, equestrian at Greenwich Park and shooting and archery at the Royal Artillery Barracks.

Recently returned from the Chef de Mission Seminar in London this month, APC Chief Executive and 2012 Team Chef de Mission Jason Hellwig experienced London embracing the Paralympic spirit firsthand.

“The celebrations to mark International Paralympic Day on September 8 in Trafalgar Square were spectacular, with Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson playing wheelchair tennis,” said Hellwig.

“Londoners really embraced the Paralympic sports on display and it was great to see so many Paralympic athletes from around the world, spreading the Paralympic message and getting the people excited for next year.”

The Paralympic Games will return to its spiritual home next year, after the Games was founded in Stoke Mandeville, a town north-west of London. What began as a competition between World War Two returned servicemen at Stoke Mandeville spinal injury hospital in 1948 became an international movement, with the first official Paralympic Games held 12 years later in Rome in 1960.

-APC