2012 Paralympics

The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Summer Paralympic Games as organised by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

These Games were the first Summer Paralympics to be hosted by London, and the first hosted solely by Great Britain; the English village of Stoke Mandeville co-hosted the 1984 Games with Long Island, New York after its original host, the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, withdrew due to financial issues. In 1948, the village hosted the Stoke Mandeville Games—the first organised sporting event for athletes with disabilities, and a precursor to the modern Paralympic Games—to coincide with the opening of the 1948 Olympics in London. In 1935, London hosted the 1935 Summer Deaflympics.

Because Parasports is a cultural factor of great impact in Great Britain, the organisers expected the Games to be the first Paralympics to achieve mass-market appeal, fuelled by continued enthusiasm over Great Britain's performance during the Olympics, awareness of Great Britain's role in the history of the Paralympics, the presence of the first global Paralympic star in history – the South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius (who had become the first double amputee to compete in the Summer Olympics alongside non-disabled athletes), and increasing media coverage and promotion of Paralympic sport (including the first developed major advertising campaign made by a local broadcaster). The Games ultimately met these expectations, breaking records for ticket sales, heightening the profile of the Paralympics in relation to the Olympics, and prompting IPC president Philip Craven to declare them the "greatest Paralympic Games ever."

A total of 503 events in 20 sports were held during the Games; events for athletes with intellectual disabilities (ID) returned to the Paralympic programme after being suspended following the 2000 Summer Paralympics, The Games were contested by a record 4,302 athletes representing 164 National Paralympic Committees, with 14 countries making their Paralympic debut. For the third Summer Paralympics in a row, China won the most medals overall, with a total of 231 (95 of them being gold), followed by Russia and Great Britain.

Bidding process

As part of a formal agreement between the International Paralympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee established in 2001, the winner of the bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics was also to host the 2012 Summer Paralympics. At the 117th IOC Session in Singapore, the rights to host the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics were awarded to London.

Development and preparation

As with the Olympics, the 2012 Summer Paralympics were overseen by LOCOG and the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA). LOCOG was responsible for overseeing the staging of the games, while the ODA dealt with infrastructure and venues.

The Government Olympic Executive (GOE) within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) was the lead Government body for co-ordinating the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. The GOE reported through the DCMS Permanent Secretary to the Minister for Sports and the Olympics Hugh Robertson. It focused on oversight of the Games, cross-programme management and the London 2012 Olympic Legacy.

England's role in the history of the Paralympics was emphasised as part of the Games: an event known as the Stoke Mandeville Games were hosted by the village of Stoke Mandeville—site of the National Spinal Injuries Centre—to coincide with the opening of the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. Contested between British veterans of the Second World War, it was the first organised sporting event for athletes with disabilities, and served as a precursor to the modern Paralympic Games.

Venues and infrastructure

The 2012 Summer Paralympics used many of the same venues as the 2012 Summer Olympics, along with two exclusive venues ( Eton Manor for wheelchair tennis and Brands Hatch circuit for road cycling. All the London's purpose-built Olympic venues and facilities, including the Olympic Village, were designed and planned to be accessible as possible so they could easily accommodate the Paralympics. Some older venues also contained additional accessible seating areas during the Paralympics.

Public transport

Transport for London (TfL) operated the Paralympic Route Network (a downsized version of the Olympic Route Network operated during the Summer Olympics) to facilitate road traffic between venues and facilities. The network provided of lanes specifically reserved for Paralympic athletes and officials. TfL continued to operate its ''Get Ahead of the Games'' website during the Paralympics, which provided updates and advice for commuters during the Games. Prior to the Games, concerns were raised by TfL commissioner Peter Hendy that London's transportation system might not be able to handle the Paralympics adequately. He feared that the end of the school summer holiday (which fell during the Games) would result in increased traffic, and that commuters might not heed traffic warnings or change their travel behaviour as they had during the Olympics.

Sevenoaks railway station was designated as the preferred station for spectators travelling to watch the cycling at Brands Hatch. Organisers chose Sevenoaks over the closer Swanley railway station because of its "existing step-free access and excellent transport links", and because Swanley did not yet have a wheelchair lift. Whilst organisers did not believe that Swanley would be able to have wheelchair lifts installed by the start of the Paralympics, the station finished their installation by early August 2012.

Lead-up and promotion

Handover ceremony

The formal handover occurred during the closing ceremony of the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, when Mayor of London Boris Johnson received the Paralympic Flag from Mayor of Beijing Guo Jinlong. This was followed by a cultural presentation by Britain, which was a which was a sequel to the presentation during the Antwerp Ceremony during the Olympics closing ceremonies. It featured urban dance group ZooNation, the Royal Ballet, and Candoco, a physically integrated dance group, all dressed as London commuters and waiting for a bus by a zebra crossing. A double-decker bus drove around the stadium, guided by Ade Adepitan, to music composed by Philip Sheppard. The top of the bus was open and folded down to show a privet hedge featuring London landmarks such as Tower Bridge, The Gherkin and the London Eye. Cherisse Osei, drummer for Mika, and Sam Hegedus then performed, before the top of the bus folded up into its original form,sporting multi-coloured Paralympic livery. Both the Paralympic and Olympic flags were formally raised outside of London's City Hall on 26 September 2008. British Paralympians Helene Raynsford and Chris Holmes raised the Paralympic flag.

Paralympic Day and Super Saturday

On 8 September 2011 Trafalgar Square staged ''International Paralympic Day'', hosted by Rick Edwards, Ade Adepitan and Iwan Thomas, to coincide with a visit to London by representatives of the IPC. The event featured showcases and demonstrations of the 20 sports that would feature during the Games, with some sessions also made inclusive to people with hearing disabilities. It also included appearances by Paralympic athletes Oscar Pistorius, Ellie Simmonds and Sascha Kindred, and the unveiling of a bronze statue of Pistorius by Ben Dearnley. British Prime Minister David Cameron and London's mayor Boris Johnson also appeared.

Two days later on 10 September, supermarket chain Sainsbury's and Channel 4 presented ''Sainsbury's Super Saturday'', a family event at Clapham Common. The event featured showcases of Paralympic sports, and a concert featuring pop music acts including Nicola Roberts, Olly Murs, The Wanted, Will Young, Pixie Lott, Dappy, Sugababes, The Saturdays, Chipmunk and Taio Cruz.

Channel 4 promotional campaign

Channel 4 the new local broadcaster of the 2012 Summer Paralympics in the United Kingdom—held a multi-platform advertising campaign to promote its coverage. The broadcaster sought to change the public perception of the Paralympics, encouraging viewers to see them as an "event in its own right", rather than as an afterthought to the Olympics. The campaign included television adverts, online content, and billboard advertising, some of which carrying the infamous slogan "Thanks for the warm-up".

As part of the campaign, Channel 4 produced a two-minute-long trailer for its coverage entitled ''Meet the Superhumans'', which was directed by Tom Tagholm with input from Deborah Poulton, 2012 Paralympic Project Leader and Alison Walsh, Editorial Manager of Disability, both at Channel 4. The trailer, set to Public Enemy's song " Harder Than You Think", focused on the competitive and "superhuman" aspects of Paralympic sport, while acknowledging the personal events and struggles that reflected every athlete's participation in the Games. ''Meet the Superhumans'' premiered on 17 July 2012, airing simultaneously on 78 different commercial television channels in the UK (which included rival commercial channels ITV and Sky1).

The advert was met with critical acclaim: '' Adweek'' Tim Nudd declared it "the summer's most stunning sports commercial", while Simon Usborne of ''The Independent'' felt it was "an act of branding genius" and "a clear bid to bring the Paralympics from the sporting wings to centre stage." The advert was seen by an estimated audience of 10 million viewers; Channel 4's marketing and
communications chief Dan Brooke estimated that reaction to the advert through social media was double that of the première of the BBC's trailer for its Olympics coverage.

''Meet the Superhumans'' won a Golden Lion award at the Cannes Lions Festival in June 2013, losing the overall award to the railway safety PSA ''Dumb Ways to Die''. Sir John Hegarty, the jury president said of it: "When you've got some really outstanding work it is tragic in some ways it can't get a bigger award, but there can only be one grand prix", while jury member Carlo Cavallone added " eet the Superhumansis an amazing campaign, one of the golds that went through he judging processimmediately ... Everyone felt it had the highest level of craft. It puts an issue that was really important before London 2012 to raise awareness of the Paralympics ndthey were hyper successful … ''Dumb Ways to Die'' was a tough contender."

Royal Mail stamps and gold post boxes

In August 2009, Royal Mail unveiled a series of 30 stamps (reflecting the 30th Olympiad) in honour of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, released in batches of ten between 2009 and July 2011. Each stamp featured an Olympic or Paralympic sport and the London 2012 logo.

As it had done during the Olympics, Royal Mail honoured Britain's Paralympic gold medallists by painting a post box gold in each of their home towns (along with an additional post box outside the National Spinal Injuries Centre in Stoke Mandeville, in honour of its role in the Games' history), and featured them on commemorative stamps released throughout the Games. Royal Mail originally planned only to release a series of six stamps with group portraits of Britain's medallists; however, the decision was met with backlash from critics, who argued that the organisation was discriminating against Paralympians by not granting them the same individual recognition as their Olympian counterparts. Olympic shadow minister Tessa Jowell was also critical of Royal Mail's plan, saying that the stamps were a symbolic aspect of Britain's celebration of the Olympics and that "it would be a shame if this important symbol was not offered to our Paralympian heroes as well."

Royal Mail initially defended its decision, arguing that it would have been "logistically and practically impossible" to issue individual stamps for each gold medallist, since it expected the British team to meet or exceed its performance at Beijing of 42 gold medals. As a result of the criticism, Royal Mail announced on 15 August 2012 that it would release individual stamps for each British gold medallist during the Paralympics.

Test events

Several Paralympics-specific events were held during the London Prepares series of test events for the Olympic and Paralympic Games; these included the London International Goalball Tournament, and the London Disability Grand Prix—which was also the first Paralympic event to be held at London's Olympic Stadium.

Torch relay

The Paralympic torch relay began on 22 August, when groups of integrated scouts kindled four Paralympic flames on the highest peaks of each Home Nation: Scafell Pike in England, Ben Nevis in Scotland, Slieve Donard in Northern Ireland, and Snowdon in Wales. On 24 August the four flames were used to light ceremonial cauldrons in London, Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff during special "Flame Festival" events; smaller "Flame Celebration" events were also held in various communities over the bank holiday weekend.

On 28 August the four flames were united during a ceremony at Stoke Mandeville Stadium. The flame then travelled a route to Olympic Stadium in a 24-hour relay, with 580 torchbearers working in teams of five. After a two-hour weather delay, a backup flame was taken straight to the stadium as a contingency, and the relay route was modified. However, as the opening ceremony's parade of nations took longer than expected, the flame was able to reach the external area of Olympic Stadium in time.

Ticketing

2.7 million tickets were offered in total, including event-specific tickets and those granting access solely to the Olympic Park, along with multi-event passes offered for ExCeL London and Olympic Park that were intended to allow spectators to discover a variety of Paralympic events. Unlike previous Paralympics, tickets were in extremely high demand, and the ticket allocation was increased from the originally planned 2.5 million. Whilst the period during the Olympics has historically been the busiest for Paralympic sales, 1.4 million tickets were already sold before the start of the Summer Olympics, already surpassing the total number sold in Sydney. The high demand resulted in the Ticketmaster-operated website crashing under the load.

Organisers expected the first ever sell-out in the history of the Paralympics; LOCOG's chief executive Paul Deighton remarked that "the interest in attending the Paralympics has been extraordinary from the start." This success was attributed to the enthusiasm surrounding Great Britain's performance during the Olympics, fan interest in South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius—who had become the first ever double amputee to compete in the Olympics alongside non-disabled athletes, and affordable prices.

On 8 August, LOCOG announced that 2.1 million tickets had been sold (600,000 in the previous month alone), breaking the record of 1.8 million set in Beijing (1.6 million tickets were also distributed by the Chinese government). IPC president Philip Craven congratulated London for this achievement, crediting it to "the insatiable appetite the public has for top class elite sport", and noted it would be fitting for a Paralympics held in its spiritual birthplace to have filled venues. By the opening ceremony, 2.4 million had been sold, with the remaining 100,000 sold during the Games; 10,000 were offered each day. The last 800 tickets to the Opening Ceremony were distributed to police and the military, while Mayor Boris Johnson arranged for the distribution of 1,100 to members of London's youth athletics clubs. Due to popular demand, a further 100,000 contingency tickets were released on 6 September (which included multi-event passes, and event tickets given up by sponsors and partners), along with 100,000 giving access solely to the Olympic Park.

Logo

The 2012 Summer Paralympics used an emblem sharing a common design with that of the Summer Olympicsthe first time this had ever been done. The logo, designed by Wolff Olins, was unveiled on 4 June 2007, and is a representation of the number 2012. The Paralympic version has its own distinct colour scheme, and substitutes the Olympic Rings with the Paralympic "agitos".

Mascots

The official mascot of the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games, Mandeville, was unveiled alongside its Olympic counterpart Wenlock on 19 May 2010. As characters, they are portrayed as drops of steel from a steelworks in Bolton, and feature singular camera eyes representing "focus" with the cameras capturing aspects of the Games. Mandeville is named in honour of Stoke Mandeville due to its significance in the origins of the Paralympics. Mandeville also wears a helmet emblazoned in the red, green, and blue colours of the Paralympic emblem.

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony was held on 29 August at the Olympic Stadium. It was inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''The Tempest'' and themed around the concept of "Enlightenment", with actors Ian McKellen and Nicola Miles-Wildin playing the roles of Prospero and Miranda. It featured appearances by theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, and performances by British electronic music group Orbital, and the Graeae Theatre Company, who performed Ian Dury's 1981 protest song "Spasticus Autisticus".

The final bearers of the Paralympic flame represented several generations of Paralympic athletes. "Future" Paralympic athlete Joe Townsend, a Royal Marine who lost both of his legs after stepping on a land mine on duty in Afghanistan, delivered the flame to Olympic Stadium via a zipline from the ArcelorMittal ''Orbit'' tower. He passed the flame to long-time British Five-a-side football captain David Clarke, who then passed it to the lighter of the Paralympic cauldron, Margaret Maughan, who was the winner of Britain's first gold medal at the first official Paralympics, in Rome.

Closing ceremony

The closing ceremony was held on 9 September at the Olympic Stadium. Entitled "The Festival of the Flame", the ceremony was themed around the gathering of people in celebration, and was directed by Kim Gavin, who also directed the closing ceremony of the Summer Olympics just a few weeks prior. The artistic programme of the ceremony was set to live performances by the British rock band Coldplay. They were accompanied by guest performers such as the British Paraorchestra (who accompanied the band on " Strawberry Swing", and also performed the Paralympic anthem), Barbadian singer Rihanna (who performed "We Found Love", and her collaboration with Coldplay, "Princess of China") and American rapper Jay-Z (who performed "Run This Town" with Rihanna and Coldplay, and joined in a reprise of "Paradise").

During their closing remarks, LOCOG chief Sebastian Coe and IPC president Philip Craven both congratulated London for its successful hosting of the Paralympics; Coe was proud that both the Olympics and Paralympics in London could be labelled " Made in Britain", while Sir Phillip felt that the Games were the "greatest Paralympic Games ever." The Paralympic flag was handed over from Boris Johnson, Mayor of London to Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, host of the 2016 Summer Paralympics. Ellie Simmonds and Jonnie Peacock shared the honour of extinguishing the Paralympic cauldron, sharing its last flame on torches to others throughout the stadium to represent its eternal spirit.

The Games

Participating National Paralympic Committees

London 2012 had the largest number of athletes and participating nations of any Paralympic Games before. A total of 4,302 athletes from 164 countries competed in the Games. This represented an increase of 291 athletes and 18 countries from the 2008 Games, which had 4,011 athletes from 146 countries.

Fourteen countries made their Paralympic debut: Antigua and Barbuda, Brunei, Cameroon, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mozambique, North Korea, San Marino, the Solomon Islands and the US Virgin Islands. Trinidad and Tobago returned to the Games for the first time since 1988.

Andorra made its debut in the Summer Paralympics, having already made three appearances at the Winter Paralympics. Malawi, which would have been making its debut at the Games, and Botswana, were both due to send delegations but withdrew hours before the opening ceremony citing a lack of government funds.

The following National Paralympic Committees sent delegations to compete:

Number of athletes by National Paralympic Committees (by alphabetical order)

Sports

The programme of the 2012 Summer Paralympics featured events in 20 sports. The number of events in each sport is noted in parentheses.

* Archery (9) ()
* Athletics (170) ()
* Boccia (7) ()
* Paralympic cycling ()
** Road (30)
** Track (20)
* Equestrian (11) ()
* Football 5-a-side (1) ()
* Football 7-a-side (1) ()
* Goalball (2) ()
* Judo (13) ()
* Powerlifting (20) ()
* Rowing (4) ()
* Sailing (3) ()
* Shooting (12) ()
* Swimming (148) ()
* Table tennis (29) ()
* Volleyball (2) ()
* Wheelchair basketball (2) ()
* Wheelchair fencing (12) ()
* Wheelchair rugby (1) ()
* Wheelchair tennis (6) ()

Events for athletes with intellectual disabilities (ID class) returned to the Paralympics in athletics, swimming, and table tennis for the first time since 2000. ID events had been suspended following the 2000 Summer Paralympics, after the Spanish basketball team was stripped of their gold medals when it was found that only 2 of their 12 team members actually had an intellectual disability. The IPC introduced a new procedure involving "sports intelligence" testing to better determine eligibility for the ID class.

Also beginning in 2012, sighted guide