August 29, 2007
By Adam King
STOKE Mandeville Stadium marked the five-year countdown to the London Paralympics today, helped by many of the games' most famous stars.
The roadshow offered the chance for people of all ages and abilities the opportunity to try their hand at a number of
sports, from basketball to archery. There was also a gymnastics and bicycle stunt display throughout the day, and a board to write down personal objectives which people hoped to achieve by 2012.
Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, 11 times Paralympic gold medalist, opened the proceedings, and was joined by wheelchair basketball player and TV personality Ade Adepitan, complete with his team from CBBC drama Desperados.
Both athletes said how Stoke Mandeville had helped them become world class athletes. "It is a really important place where my sporting career started when I was 12 years old and got selected to play in the junior games," said Dame Tanni.
But she recalled: "I really, really wanted to play basketball. However, my career on court lasted two minutes as I got in a fight. That was a defining moment in my life because my PE teacher told me to go in to athletics so I would not be able to get close enough to hit anybody else! So this is a very special place for me and I know it very well."
Also in attendance was the chief executive of the London organising committee, who said that 'medium sized' countries would look to use Stoke Mandeville as a training base for both the Olympics and Paralympics.
Paul Deighton said: "This is obviously a very attractive facility and once teams have got Beijing behind them London will be in their sights and this will be one of the training bases. It is a facility that can manage both the Olympics and Paralympics and it is in a wonderful proximity to London."
In 1948 Sir Ludwig Guttman organised the first competitive wheelchair games at Stoke Mandeville Hospital to coincide with the London Olympics.
"In coming to Stoke Mandeville, London is paying homage to the roots of the Paralympian movement and catching the true spirit of Paralympic Games," Sir Philip Craven, President of the International Paralymlpic Committee said.
"Britain is the birth place of Paralympic sport and the world can look forward to seeing great things in 2012 as a result."
The 2012 Paralympics will run from Wednesday August 29 through to Sunday September 9. There will be 4,500 athletes taking part in 20 different sports.
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