A spectacular opening ceremony heralded the biggest ever Paralympic Games yesterday, with double amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius among those gearing up for 11 days of competition.
Stephen Hawking, Britain’s most famous living scientist, featured in the ceremony at London’s Olympic Stadium, where the curtain came down on the Olympic Games just two weeks ago.
Hawking, who has motor neurone disease and has been paralysed for most of his life, appeared alongside a cast of more than 3,000 at the ceremony, where Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the Games.
A record 4,200 athletes are taking part in the Paralympics across 20 sports, with the event expected to sell out for the first time and win its biggest ever television audience.
The Paralympic torch arrived in London earlier in the day after travelling in an overnight relay through the English countryside.
It was lit at Stoke Mandeville – the hospital that is the spiritual home of disabled sport – on Tuesday evening and carried 148 kilometres southeast by 116 teams of five people.
Cheers and prayers met the flame as it arrived in northwest London at the Shree Swaminarayan Hindu temple, before travelling through the British capital past famous landmarks including Westminster Abbey and Piccadilly Circus.
The torch then headed east for the start of the ceremony which was watched by some 80,000 people in the stadium.
The British Paralympic Association (BPA) said the ceremony was a “groundbreaking in its inclusivity and innovative staging”, showcasing deaf and disabled artists.
It was created by artistic directors Jenny Sealey and Bradley Hemmings, both of whom have a long history of hosting live shows involving disabled performers.
Across the 11 days of elite disability sport, the International Paralympic Committee predicts a global television audience of more than four billion – a record for the Games, which first took place in Rome in 1960.
Organisers believe much of the interest has come after a successful Olympics for British athletes, which saw the host nation finish third in the overall medal table behind the United States and China.
Britain is also considered the “spiritual home” of the Paralympics, as the first recognised sports events for athletes with disabilities was held in Stoke Mandeville in 1948.
The sporting action begins today, with shooting set to provide the first gold of the Games in the women’s 10m standing air rifle.
Medals are also up for grabs in the velodrome with the finals of the men and women’s individual pursuit, in four weight categories in judo at the ExCel Arena and at the Aquatics Centre, where 15 swimming finals are to be held.
Malta swimmer Matthew Sultana, 15, will first be in action tomorrow when he competes in the 50m freestyle race. He is also scheduled to take part in the 100m fly (Saturday) and 100m breastroke (September 8).
The showpiece athletics programme gets under way tomorrow with the spotlight on South Africa’s Pistorius, who is seeking to defend his T44 100m, 200m and 400m titles from Beijing four years ago.
Pistorius, dubbed the “Blade Runner” because he runs on carbon fibre blades, made history earlier this month by becoming the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics when he ran in the 400m heats and 4x400m relay final.