London, 30th August the 14th Paralympics Games opened up Wednesday night in front of 80,000 spectators inside the Olympic Stadium. The Queen officially opened the Games the first time for the monarch to open both Olympics and Paralympics.
Patrick Hickey , EOC President and Raffaele Pagnozzi, Secretary general, in attendance in London, were highly impressed by the opening ceremony and its dazzling atmosphere.
Some 4200 athletes from 164 countries are in London. Many of those athletes took part in the opening ceremony that lasted close to four hours.
Sir Philip Craven, President of the International Paralympic Committee, said: ‘Tonight is the start of something extremely special. Tonight is about welcoming the world to a global Games, an event where we will experience every single emotion, including ones we never thought possible.
Seb Coe, Chair of the London 2012 Organising Committee, paid tribute to the UK’s unique Paralympic history as he welcomed athletes and spectators to the Paralympic Games .
Recalling the archery competition staged by Dr. Ludwig Guttman for injured war veterans at the Stoke Mandeville hospital in Buckinghamshire in 1948, he declared: ‘It was this vision that launched Ludwig Guttman’s great venture, it was this that launched the Paralympic Games. People should prepare to be “inspired”, “dazzled” and “moved” by the London Paralympics, he stated..
A spectacular night with fireworks, flags and umbrellas, dedicated to science and completed by the British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking in his wheelchair and computer voice, who invited people “look up, the sky, not your feet”
London competitions, that for the first time are almost booked out, will take place until 9th September.