PARALYMPIC FLAME -- UPDATES

THE SYMBOL OF THE PARALYMPICS







UPDATE:  8 January 2013  --  The Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor  George Osborne were  there to  hand out the medals.  They were booed by 90.000 spectators.  To sit there watching the horrendous effort and struggles of disabled people and planing at the same time to cut their Disabled Benefit must take a very cold blooded man. Especially David Cameron who experienced Disability at first hand.  By now it cost around 1,000 lives because the government agency ATOS cut their benefit.  Even so the death might not all be because of the Disability Benefits being cut but surely at least half are.  AS that would be all but the government closed 67 factories where disabled people could work contemning then imprisonment at home.

UPDATE -- 9 September 2012:   Britain is on second place with winning medals. The first place is Chine. This is a fantastic achievement for a small island .  Congratulation and well done. The athletes can be proud of themselves and so is the nation proud of them.


The Paralympic flame was ignited on Friday and it gave the signal of its beginning of  Opening Ceremony on Wednesday, 29 August, 2012. On Wednesday 8.45am the Paralympic flame crosses the famous Abbey Road in North West London.  9.37am it passes through the London Zoo.  10.45am Ex-boxer Michael Watson who was brain damaged in his last fight will carry it on Regent Street.   1.12pm the flame will be taken over the Tower Bridge.  6.20pm at Hackney Town Hall on its way to the Olympic Stadium and it arrived at around 9pm.

Claire Lomas, 32, lit a ceremonial cauldron at Trafalgar Square before the Wednesday’s Opening Ceremony. She is paralysed from the chest down caused by a riding accident in 2007.  Earlier this year she finished at the London Marathon in 16 days wearing a bionic suit.  She commented that she felt very proud to be selected to lit the cauldron. She admitted that she was trembling before but was glad it all went smoothly.

At the same time the GB’s Women’s Wheelchair Basketball team gave a demonstration of their great abilities inside St Paul’s Cathedral.

On Tuesday four flames kindled in the home nations will be united for a 24-hour relay to Stratford from Stoke Mandeville Stadium, Buckinghamshire.  It will take 580 torchbearers, in team of five, to cover the 92 miles which goes through Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and London to the Olympic Stadium.

Prime Minister David Cameron wished the 4,280 competitors good luck.  The Athletes will compete on front of a record breaking crowd.

The Paralympics began in 1948 at Stoke Mandeville, where neurologist Sir Ludwig Guttman helped Second World War veteran overcome their injuries with sport.

SIR LUDWIG GUTTMAN

Seb Coes the chairman of the London 2012 Olympics stated that without being too jingoistic or nationalistic it has to be seen as the Paralympics coming home.

London Major Boris Johnson added: “The Olympics showed what we can don and I think the paralympics will show what kind of people we are … what’s going on in our hearts.”

The Agitos symbol of the Paralympics was lowered into place over the Thames on Tower Bridge.

Up to 166 National Paralympic Committees were arriving in the athletes’ village. They were the biggest number to attend the Paralympic Games.

It is unbelievable the achievements and determination of these athletes it certainly puts everyone to shame. It is unfortunate that we forget too quickly what these people go through due to various injuries even in their ordinary daily life and their heroic spirit to achieve these gold, silver and bronze medals.



UPDATE:  By now the competition is in full swing but the Opening Ceremony is still in the mind of many who were there. It was spectacular and even better than the Olympics Opening Ceremony. The title was Enlightenment and it certainly was. Professor Stephan Hawking telling a young disabled actress not to look down on her feet but look up to the stars. After a wonderful and inspiring three hours the flame was carried by Royal Marine Commando Joe Townsend, 24, who lost both legs fighting in Afghanistan.

The Queen's speech was: "It is with tremendous pride that the people of London and the United Kingdom welcome the world to the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

"The Games are returning to the country where they first began, more than 60 years ago.

"The athletes endeavours and triumphs will excite and inspire people wherever they live."

ANCIENT OLYMPIC GAMES

ANCIENT OLYMPIC STADIUM 
IN GREECE

The very first games of Olympia were held about 2,700 BC and it was sacred for the Greek religion.

The original stadium is near the port of Katakolon on the Greek Peloponnese. There are still ruins from the Gymnasium where athletes were training naked.  A posh hotel where the officials lived. Tradition will carry on. 

Close by the place where the temple of Zeus once stood and was part of the Seven Wonders of the World. Unfortunately it was destroyed by fire.

THE LIGHTING CEREMONY OF THE OLYMPIC TORCH  AT THE TEMPLE OF HERA

Next to it is the temple of Hera where the torch was lit for these Olympic Games. The Olympic fire was started by the Sun on May 10 on which the torch was lit and carried around till Friday when at the Opening Ceremony the Olympic 2012 fire at London will be lit.

The foundation for today’s modern Olympics was laid in 770 BC. The athletes had really been strong and tough.  They had to run a 186 metre sprint but with full battle gear. This means helmet, leg greaves, breastplate and carrying their shield and spears and weighs about 60lb made in bonze. Not to forget the high temperature of the Sun in August in Greece.

At the ancient Olympic stadium athletes competed in front of 45,000 spectators. They were seated on grassy banks. The word stadium came from the Greek word stadion which meant a unit of 600ft. Therefore the Olympia venue had a stadion length. Over the years it became known as stadium.

Looking at the picture it is hard to imagine and awe inspiring that Hercules was once standing there at the starting line.

Close by there is a museum showing all the wonders of a bygone age. There is a statue of Nike the goddess of victory and Hermes the gods’ messenger. The most remarkable treasure though is two helmets. One Persian and one a Greek general’s. They were worn at the battle of Marathon in 490BC. At the battle the eastern hordes of Darius were defeated by the Athens’ army.

The Olympic games very so important that any wars were stopped and the athletes were able to compete. 

In those days only males could compete as athletes and they had to be free Greeks. Whoever won was crowned with an olive wreath.

To keep the Gods happy during all these five-day events they killed 100 oxen on the middle day.

BOBSLEIGH

The Bobsleigh is for people who really like to live dangerously.

You hurdle down iced concrete tubes. You can do it either flat on your back or back sardine-like-packed in a flimsy vehicle with brakes which you are not allowed to use it. Will that be your way of fun?

British tourist in Switzerland had a bright idea to race down a snow-covered Alpine road, in the 19th century. This humble beginning started off today's exhilarating and dangerous winter sport. It developed into three categories; luge tobogganing, Cresta tobogganing and bobsledding or bobsleigh.

If you ride a sledge down on a snowcovered surface, you are tobaggoning.  As a sport it has developed into two types, the luge and cresta tobogganing.  It involves to ride down a purpose built track on a small sledge or sleds.

BOBSLEIGH IN  DAVOS 1910

EAST GERMAN BOBSLEIGH OLYMPIC TEAM IN 1951

Luge sleds are made of fibreglass with steel runners. In supplying pressure with the shoulder, hands and feet on the luge the riders steer it. It has no brakes and would you be surprise if I tell you that they have to wear crash helmets. Riders can wear knee and elbow protectors but it is not compulsory. The sitting position is compulsory at the start but then they lie flat to get the maximum speed. The riders have to have iron stomach muscles to stand all this. Iron nerves and a good insurance policy is something else. The speed is 105 km/h which leaves you with a prayer and aerodynamic elasticated suit from here to eternity.

The Cresta or skeleton toboggan makes a difference from lying on your back and hurtling feet first or lie on your stomach and meeting St Peter on the gates face first. Cresta was first in the international sport.

If you don't like any of these and decide bobsledding which isn't much better but a lot faster. You have the weight of four athletes which helps to a speed of 160 km/h. One good thing it has brakes but in competitions you are not allow to use them. If you use them in emergency, you are automatically disqualified.

Today's bobsleighs are highly sophisticated, streamlined to tenth of a mm and made of steel, fibreglass and aluminium. They have mechanical brakes and steering.

The tracks are purpose built ice-runs and banked bends. The international competitions have 15 bends and straight runs with high banked walls to keep the sled in. Racing in the Olympics demands four runs, each team, and the team with the lowest aggregate time wins.

Teams are two or four men. Their strength and stamina is vital. The flying man-powered start is very decisive for good timing. They have agility for hopping in quickly and crouch down low. They have to lean at the precise moment on each bend. The man in the front steers and the brakeman, at the back, is responsible for checking skids and brakes at the end of the run.

For a maximum weight for a two-man bob has to be 390 kg. The maximum for a four-man bob has to be 630kg. If the weight has not been achieved ballast may be added.

Until 1992, men were mad enough to enter this dangerous sport. Now women's teams are trying to enter and compete in the Olympics.

Bob runs have to be 1500m long the least and 15 banked curves with various levels of difficulty. Don't worry; you won't miss your lunch or dinner because it only takes 60 seconds from start to finish.

Do you remember the film 'Cool Running'?

The true story is that a Jamaican failed to enter the national Olympic team. He decided to train people for a team to bobsleigh on the local beach. Unbelievable he succeeded and his team competed in the 1988 Olympics.

Peter van der Zeil lived in a no-snow area in Cheshire. He built a wooden ramp from the roof of his shed to the end of their lawn. Then he attached skateboards to his bobsleigh and practise and practise. He wanted to enter the Olympics for his mother's country which was Sri Lanka. Disney never got to hear about this attraction.