London Paralympics 2012 10 years on - revisiting photos from the time
Another flame, another Games, as the Paralympics came home a couple of weeks after the 2012 Olympics had ended. The Paralympic movement started in 1948 with the revolutionary work of Dr Ludwig Guttman with soldiers with severe spinal injuries at Stoke Mandeville hospital.
My notes from the day:
The Paralympic flame passed right outside the door at work, so was able to rush out and catch it as it passed. Then I left early to catch more Wenlocks and Mandevilles - the purple stroll around Mayfair.
Watched the Paralympic opening ceremony. A very slow burn in contrast with the Olympic ceremony, but quietly moving and effective: the unmistakable mechanical 'voice' of Stephen Hawking, ParalympicGB entering to the now familiar sound of Bowie's Heroes and a roaring stadium, the Paralympic flag being carried in by the under-22s wheelchair basketball team to the accompaniment of Holst's theme from Jupiter (I Vow To Thee My Country), a rendition of Ian Dury's Spasticus Autisticus, Royal Marine Joe Townsend, who lost both legs in Afghanistan, descending from the Orbit tower with the flame, and the cauldron eventually being lit by Margaret Maughan, the first Paralympic gold medallist from 1960.
