Paralympics 2012: London Games 'the biggest ever staged' - BBC News
Organisers have confirmed that the 2012 Paralympics will be the biggest ever.
With 100 days to go, the International Paralympic Committee says athletes from 165 countries will compete - 19 more than in Beijing four years ago.
The number of competitors will also increase, to around 4,200.
"It is pleasing that Great Britain, the spiritual birthplace of the Paralympic Movement, will get to host the biggest ever Paralympics," said IPC president Sir Philip Craven.
The opening ceremony for the Games will take place on Wednesday, 29 August with Coldplay confirmed as the star act for the closing ceremony on Sunday, 9 September.
More than one million tickets for the Games go back on sale at 11:00 BST on Monday. The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog) sold the same number during last year's opening phase of sales.
"It is a massive move for the Paralympic Movement that so many tickets have been sold so far out," 11-time Paralympic gold medallist Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson told BBC Sport.
"I think it has fed off the excitement of the Olympics where a massive number of people applied for tickets, but there is also a genuine passion for Paralympic sport.
"We want the stadiums full with lots of British people supporting the home athletes. I don't mind why people come and watch the Paralympics. Sometimes it might be because they didn't get Olympic tickets but they got Paralympic ones, or they might be genuine sports fans, or they want to come and have a nose around the Stadium and the Park at Games time.
"The most important thing is that people are sitting in their seats cheering on performances and they will see some amazing performances.
"In Barcelona in 1992 the stadiums were full but most of those tickets were sold on the day. People had enjoyed the Olympics and then because the tickets were quite cheap they came and watched the Paralympics.
"Once the Olympics start I think people again will start thinking about getting Paralympics tickets but those who have bought early have been really sensible because I think it will get more difficult to get tickets the nearer you get to the Games."
Among the events going back on sale on Monday will be both the opening and closing ceremonies, athletics at the Olympic Stadium and track cycling in the Velodrome, which sold out in last year's opening phase of sales.
Locog chairman Lord Coe said: "The athletes involved in the Paralympic Games are incredible sportsmen and women and I urge everyone to take this chance and to form memories that will last a lifetime."
A total of 16 countries will be making their Paralympic debut in London - Antigua & Barbuda, Brunei, Cameroon, Comoros, Djibouti, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, North Korea, San Marino, Solomon Islands, Trinidad & Tobago and US Virgin Islands.
Craven added: "The Games won't just be the biggest ever in terms of athletes and countries either. I also believe the levels of athletic performance will reach new levels and a record number of TV viewers around the world [will] tune in.
"The recent Paralympic test events gave us all a flavour of what we can expect later this summer, and between now and 29 August the excitement levels will continue to rise to astronomical levels."
The 100-day mark comes as some of the world's leading Paralympic athletes prepare to take part in the Paralympic World Cup, which begins in Manchester on Tuesday.
The multi-sport event, which features athletics, men's and women's wheelchair basketball and seven-a-side cerebral palsy football will be a key part of preparations ahead of London.
London 2012: Richard Strachan hails Linford Christie influence - BBC News
Athlete Richard Strachan is confident he can still make London 2012 with the help of coach Linford Christie.
The 400m runner from Leeds is currently receiving intensive treatment to speed up his recovery from a calf injury
And once back on the track, he believes former Olympic 100m champion Christie can inspire him to qualify for Team GB.
"He's fantastic to work with. To be training for an Olympics and being coached by Linford is a dream come true," he told BBC Radio Leeds.
"He's there every single day of training. We went away on a six-week camp to America recently and he was there the whole time."
Strachan, 25, suffered a grade two calf muscle tear in training, an injury which normally takes three to four weeks to heal, but he is hopeful of reducing that timescale.
"I've been lucky though because the treatment I've had has been brilliant," he said.
"I've had some injections and I'm going in to a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, which is where you breathe in 100% oxygen and should help speed up the healing process.
"I can't do much else but think that I'm going to be involved and we're going to be successful. I think about it every single day.
"It's extremely exciting."
London 2012 Olympics: Sarah Storey's quest is to be a world-class cyclist - Daily Telegraph
I am still doing a lot of stuff on the road: in fact I’m off to South Africa for the first time this week to race with my road team, Escentual For Viored. With the Paralympics not starting until the end of August it still feels early in the season to me and a time to put in more groundwork.
It is a frantic year and one in which I am very lucky having Barney in my corner. He is a wonder and almost entirely responsible for me being the bike rider that I have become.
We first met at the Athens Paralympics in 2004 when the GB cyclists had the apartment above us swimmers in the village.
After the Games another couple of friends had encouraged me to take up cycling and I started to bump into him fairly regularly when I went down to the Manchester Velodrome, where I quickly got the track cycling bug. Eventually he plucked up the courage to ask me out and we got together.
Barney was a top-class road racer before turning to the track where he now rides as pilot for some of our top men in the Paralympic squad.
In that role he won two Paralympic golds at Beijing – tandems are the only events in the Paralympic Games where an able-bodied athlete can also win a medal because they directly affect the outcome of the race – and has won four world titles. He understands every element of the sport and he helps me in every conceivable way.
He does the mechanics, sets the bike up correctly and helps organise my training programme and race schedule. Despite his own busy programme he will come away on as many trips and races with me as possible.
With Barney it is so much more than husbandly encouragement and support; it is also really expert advice and the voice of experience.
Hopefully in return I am not high maintenance and an overly demanding wife and we try to be relaxed but businesslike in our approach to the sport. Neither of us likes making dramas out of anything or stressing about things.
We are investing a huge amount of emotion to start with just being together as a couple and deciding to compete at an elite level of cycling. You don’t need any more emotion on top of that.
What we do need is just to get on with the job and enjoy the wonderful sporting life we have together.
Unlike some couples, we don’t have any nights when talking shop is banned – well, maybe the odd meal out. Cycling will never be 'shop’ for us. It’s our life and the one we choose to lead. We don’t have to 'escape’ anything for a night because we are totally in love with what we do.
Barney is a natural coach and as a coach he has always been fascinated by a very straightforward challenge: can I help make this former swimmer into a world-class cyclist? And, of course, it is the same quest that drives me on.
London’s Swiss Church looks to uncertain future - swissinfo
by Andrew Littlejohn in London, swissinfo.ch
London’s Swiss Church community has celebrated its 250th anniversary with the necessary pomp and circumstance, but its concerns are firmly in the future, with the perspective of less funding from home more than likely.
Dignitaries from London and representatives from the Commission of Swiss Churches Abroad mingled with scores of expats this weekend to mark the occasion.
Swiss Ambassador to Britain Anton Thalmann opened the celebratory weekend early Saturday evening with a fundraising reception for the Swiss Church and called the anniversary a “truly historic milestone”.
The original place of worship for expatriates was founded by French-speaking Swiss Protestants in 1762. The current building in Covent Garden was first opened in 1855 and has been their spiritual home of Swiss Protestants in London ever since.
It was designed by George Vulliamy, who was of Swiss descent, and it was largely financed by contributions from the Swiss community, the canton of Zurich and churches in Bern.
More than 50 pastors – French and German - have preached to the Swiss community in London since records began in 1762.
Thalmann went on to describe the close ties the two establishments have shared and how in those early years the church was the main protector of the Swiss abroad.
“For more than forty years, before the consular representation was established in London in 1817, it was the church that acted as Swiss consul,” he told guests. “The pastor kept a registration record of the community and issued passports.”
Oldest parish outside Switzerland
Gottfried Locher, president of the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches, put into perspective just how old the church is.
“We are here celebrating the oldest parish outside of Switzerland,” he said. “There are many cantonal churches in Switzerland that are not as old.”
The Swiss church has survived many challenges in the past. Locher, who was also minister of London’s Swiss Church in the 1990s, praised what he called “this small, but stout” community for bringing people together.
“The two sides of the ‘Röstigraben’, this famous divider between the two parts of Switzerland, have been well and truly alive here for a long time,” he told his audience.
“Many of you will know it was only in the mid-1950s that the two communities actually merged. And when I arrived in 1994, there was still a sense of a divide.”
Changing perspectives
Sunday’s church service was equally celebratory, but as a large part of the 250-member congregation was in attendance, the tone focused more on what was needed for the church to move forward in its current state.
Locher spelled out some of the challenges ahead. He began by making clear there had always been financial constraints on Swiss churches abroad and that it was likely that even less money would be available in the coming years.
“Numbers are down. The average age is up. We need to change our perspectives.”
Locher was not even sure if young people were the future of the church.
“People here have to adapt to reality, as it is,” he said. “There is no point in denying this reality, which as I see it, shows an uncertainty, as to whether younger people will join this community.”
Throughout the two-day event there were constant reminders that a church costs money and if London’s Swiss Church was important to the expatriate community, they would need to ensure that support on all levels.
Challenges ahead
Nathalie Duermueller, who has been the minister of the Swiss Church for the past four years, understands the challenge ahead and she and her team are constantly facing up to the future with creative and realistic plans.
“We often get requests from other local churches to hire our premises. Ventures like this help bring in much-needed revenue,” she said. “We also have artists and musicians who want to exhibit and perform in our premises. Our visual arts programme is starting to get a good reputation among the arts scene in London.”
Duermueller believes these new incentives may also lead to an increase in the size of the congregation.
“This is a Swiss meeting place, but of course it is also a church,” she explained. “If we attract different types of people here through our cultural programmes, these people may connect with the church. We should always remain an open venue that welcomes everybody.”
Andrew Littlejohn in London, swissinfo.ch
London 2012: Olympic Flame Relay Reaches Exeter On Third Day - huffingtonpost.co.uk
Some of Britain's top sport stars will carry the Olympic Flame as the London 2012 torch relay enters its third day today.
Ashes winning cricketer Marcus Trescothick and Olympic gold medal winning triple jumper Jonathan Edwards are among more than 100 torchbearers who will get to hold the famous torch.
Communities stretching from Exeter, via the north Devon coast, to Taunton in Somerset will see dozens of unsung and hardworking individuals get their moment in the spotlight.
The torchbearers range in age from children from Minehead School to 91-year-old Arthur Gilbert.
Gilbert will be one of the oldest of the 8,000 torchbearers who will carry the Olympic Flame on the way to the July 27 opening ceremony.
The nonagenarian, from Burnham on Sea, will carry the flame through Minehead.
His nomination says he received an MBE in 2008 to recognise 35 years of charity work.
Gilbert ran his first triathlon aged 68 and completed his most recent race in June last year in 2hrs 45min 43sec.
"Arthur lost his son and his wife to cancer recently looking after both of them at home and still keeping his training going," his nominator says.
"He is a shining example to all the young people who use the local sports facilities and has a large following of supporters."
There is also dedicated milkman James Winter, 40, from Chard, who will carry the torch in Minehead.
His nominator says: "The community he delivers the milk in rely on him to be there in all weathers.
"Even in the deepest snow he manages to deliver extra milk and make sure the elderly people on his round are ok and have enough suppliers.
"He goes out of his way to call on people to check they are ok on a weekly basis."
Winter has also completed the London marathon three times for charity.
Organisers will be hoping for a repeat of the packed out scenes that were part of the first two days of the relay when excited people lined the streets of Cornwall and Devon to catch a glimpse of the torch.
Yesterday began at the Plymouth Life Centre with the torch in the hands of 18-year-old Jordan Anderton.
Inspirational former Royal Marine Mark Ormrod, who lost an arm and two legs in a bomb blast in Afghanistan, was a torchbearer in Plymouth.
The relay travelled from Plymouth the Devon south coast of Totnes, Paignton and Torquay before finishing in Exeter for an evening celebration.
More than 8,500 people filled Exeter Cathedral Gardens to watch a live show of music and dance.
The convoy travelling with the flame is made up of 14 core vehicles, including a pilot car, torchbearer drop-off and pick-up shuttles. There are also sponsors, media and security vehicles plus a command car.
The lead convoy provides some entertainment for the crowds. The torchbearer follows about five to seven minutes later.
A crew of approximately 350 people are set to be working on each day of the 70-day relay.
The relay also relies on the work of staff from London 2012, the Metropolitan Police Torch Security Team, the sponsors plus the host police forces and town halls.
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