Articles

Athlete village is ready!
20-3-2012

The first completed apartments in the Olympic and Paralympic Villages were unveiled. The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) announced the accommodation will be ‘gold medal standard’.

     The Village will be able to house up more than 6000 athletes and team officials. Furthermore, 1000 referees and umpires during the Paralympic Games will be able to stay in the villages. 

The 2.818 apartments are spread over 11 plots and cover more than 250.000m2 of apartment space. Each country will have a certain number of accommodation blocks, allowing the team management to manage the affairs in one central location in the Village.

      “The first Games apartments offer an early glimpse of the gold-medal standard Village we are delivering to help athletes prepare for one of the biggest sporting moments of their lives,” said LOCOG Chair Seb Coe. “Our Villages team, Athletes’ Committee, sponsors and key partners are each playing a crucial role in creating a first-class Village to meet the needs of the best athletes in the world.”

One of the athletes that will reside in the Paralympic Villages is the Spanish Teresa Perales.
Teresa Perales was born in Zaragoza, Spain. She was practicing Karate before she had neuropathy at the age of 19, which left her paraplegic. She wanted to continue practicing sports afterwards and. she began with Swimming. She was instantly amazed by the magic of the water and by the fact that she did not need a wheelchair or the help of anyone else to move in the water. She has since then become one of the most successful Paralympic swimmers.  

The paralympic games of 2012 will be her fourth Paralympic Games since she also participated in Sydney, Athens and Beijing. The last two years Teresa did not compete at all because of the birth of her son, therefore she is highly excited to participate this year in London. The Paralympic Games in Beijing, 2008, have been the highlight of Teresa Perales’ Paralympic career so far. With three gold, one silver and two bronze medals, plus two world records, Teresa Perales was one of the most successful swimmers in the Water Cube.  

Other than Swimming, Perales has been involved in politics since 2003 and she wrote a book together with her husband Mariano Menor which is called “My Life on Wheels”. In the book she opens up about the changes in her life, the difficult and painful moments, as well as her success.

 




Bench press champions Liu Lei and Heba Ahmed 

14-3-2012

          

Liu Lei won a gold medal in the 75kg men’s powerlifting event in Beijing in 2008. He lifted 225kg, 12.5kg more than the silver medal winner Majid Farzin. He was alowed to weigh 75kg, but he only weighed only 70.44kg. In 2010 he lost a bit of weight so he could preform in the 67,5kg class at the Powerlifting World Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He did not lost his strenght, because he broke the world record with a best lift of 222.5kg. You can see Lui Lei performing at the Paralympics of 2008 below (the title of the video is incorrect). 

Powerlifting was introduced at the second Paralympic Games in 1964 held in Tokyo, but it was called weightlifting. Since 1984 it is called powerlifting. Athletes with cerebral palsy, spinal injuries, amputees (lower limb amputees only) and les autres who meet minimal disability criteria are allowed to participate. Since 2000 (Sydney) women also have an powerlifting event at the Paralympics.

Heba Ahmed from Egypt won a gold medal at the Paralympic Games in 2004 and 2008 in the women's powerlifting event. She also holds the  world record of 155kg in the 82.5kg class which she lifted in 2008 in Beijing. In 2004 she won her gold medal in the 67.5kg class and in 2008 in the 82.5kg class. 

Liu Lei

Heba Ahmed

Amazing newsflash: Paralympics will be opened by The Queen
The London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) is delighted to confirm that Her Majesty The Queen, accompanied by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, will open the London 2012 Paralympic Games in the Olympic Stadium on Wednesday 29 August. This will be the first time The Queen has opened the Paralympic Games!
With the role of The Queen in the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games on Friday 27 July already, The Queen will open both Games. The Queen will open the Paralympic Games by saying: "I declare open the London 2012 Paralympic Games".
International Paralympic Committee President Sir Philip Craven said: "I am delighted that Her Majesty The Queen will be opening the Paralympic Games, further underlining the significance and status of these Games not just to the Commonwealth but to the whole world."

Besides The Queen during the opening, the athletes performing in the Paralympic games will also be in the spotlights. Take Stephanie ‘ Stef’  Reid. She is a Paralympic sprinter who competes in the 100m, 200m and Long Jump. Before her accident she loved to play sports and especially rugby. Stef lost her right foot in a boating accident, aged 16. Her life was saved by a surgeon in Toronto who managed to stem the blood flow through amputation. After the accident she tried to keep playing Rugby with an artificial leg, but encountered difficulties with referees who felt the artificial leg could injure other players.
But with the option to compete for four (!!) countries, she is Born in New Zealand to a Scottish father and an English mother and at the age of four Stef and her family moved to Canada,  she took the decision to go train for the paralympics as a sprinter. She states: ‘It wasn’t an easy choice but one that has been vindicated already with some impressive results.’
Stef currently splits her time between her home in the USA and her training in London, a truly multi-cultural upbringing that has helped shape her fantastic personality. Having enjoyed medal success with her third place finish in Beijing, Stef now wants to build on that and experience what it feels like to stand on top of the podium in the 2012 London Paralympics.
For more information about Stephanie Reid and newsflashes about the Pralympics 2012 go to: www.facebook.com/paralympics2012 or follow us on twitter: www.twitter.com/14thparalympics

Australian wheelchair basketball team; best team performance Paralympics 2008
29-2-12

Normally we introduce an individual sporter, but the Australian wheelchair basketball team performed so well in Beijing in 2008, we just couldn't not write an article about them. Besides, wheelchair basketball is very fun to watch as you can see in the video below. The video shows the highlights of the Australian team which won the gold medal at the Paralympics of 2008 and also won the award for the best team performance. The champions are: Justin Eveson, Tige Simmons, Grant Mizens, Michael Hartnett, Brendan Dowler, Dylan Alcott, Adrian King, Brett Stibners, Tristan Knowles, Troy Sachs, Shaun Norris and Brad Ness.  

They also finished second at the Paralympics in 2004 (Canada won). You may ask yourself what the rules are for wheelchair basketball. Not every Paralympian has a equal disability, so a committee rates every players disability ranging from 1 to 4.5. Lower scores represent a larger disability. The sum score of all players on the court cannot exceed 14. We just want to put Justin Eveson in the spotlight, because he scored the most points for his team as a captain. In 2010 he also won the World Championship with his team. In 2000 he won medals in a totally different sport, swimming. He won a 4x100m freestyle relay bronze medal and a 4x100m medly relay silver medal. 

You can follow the Australian wheelchair basketball team on Twitter.  

Which team do you think will win in London?

Eveson (L), Norris (R) and Hartnett (in the air) celebrating their victory in 2008

How we stand today
21-02-12

In just 200 days, 4.200 athletes from over 140 countries will be gathering for the largest Paralympics ever. The Games will be 'coming home': in 1948 Dr Ludwig Guttmann gave birth to the Paralympic Movement with a wheelchair competition at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

Eton Manor, the newly completed venue for wheelchair tennis in the north of the Olympic Park, is the only one designed to be used only for Paralympic competition. 112 Paralympic athletes will compete for six medals in Wheelchair Tennis at the Paralympic Games.
The venue will also provide temporary facilities for Aquatics training during the Olympics.
After the Games it will be converted into a multi-sport facility for the local community.

Seb Coe, general chairman said: 'With just 200 days to go to the Opening Ceremony on 29 August, we’re in great shape for what should be a spectacular summer of Paralympic sport!

The 14-year-old wheeler star Desiree Vranken

Furthermore, one of the athletes that I want to highlight today is Desiree Vranken. The 14-year-old wheeler star from Roermond, Holland, is the youngest nominee to participate in London.  Last year she became Dutch champion in the 100, 200 and 400 meters. She finished in a 3rd place of the IPC world ranking and she was placed as the youngest Dutch participant ever (13 years old!) receiving an  A-status of NOC * NSF. Vranken seemed a particularly interesting candidate for Rio 2016, but during the Swiss Open Championships she was easily nominated for London 2012 on the 100 and 200 meters.
She blames her rapid rise on her great perseverance, but she states that there is still much to learn from her experienced colleague Kenny van Weeghel. "Next year,  everything will be with the focus on London. That's really my goal, of course during the training, but it also affects my schoolwork and everything else I do."
                                                      

Esther Vergeer; phenomenal wheelchair tennis player

15-02-12

The first sporter we would like to introduce to you is Dutch wheelchair

tennis player Esther Vergeer. Not because we are Dutch, but she is just an
amazing athlete. She is the number one of world since 1998! She didn’t lost a
single match since January 2003! She won gold at the Paralympics in Sydney in
2000, in Athens in 2004 and in Beijing in 2008. With her double partner Maaike
Smit she also won gold at the Paralympics in Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004.
In 2008 she won silver in Beijing with her new partner Jiske Griffioen.
Esther´s list of victories is a lot longer, which you can see below. In the
video you can see her in action in 2010.

We didn´t write about her just because she accomplished a lot on
the tennis court. She also does great things of the court. She is ambassador
of; Charity & Sport, International Paralympic Committee (IPC), KiKa (Children’s
Cancer Fund) and the Ronald McDonald Centre for disabled kids. She also has her
own foundation, the Esther Vergeer Foundation, which aims to let disabled
children enjoy sports.

She got disabled when she was eight years old, so she knows what
disabled children have to go through. That’s why she loves to help children to
enjoy sports like she did. As a kid she also loved to play basketball, but at a
certain time she had to choose between tennis and basketball. She chose tennis,
but she still played the European Championship in 1997 and the Dutch team won.
After this victorie she completely focused on tennis and in 1998 she won her
first tennis tournament.

Of course Esther is working hard to win gold in London this year.
She trains five days a week, four hours a day with her trainer Sven Groeneveld.
We wish her the best of luck! Will she win it again?

You can follow her on her road to the Paralympics on Twitter.
If you want to know more about weelchair tennis you can follow this link.

Performances of Esther Vergeer:

Single
• Paralympics: 3 x gold (2000 Sydney, 2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing)
• NEC Masters (unofficial World Cup): 12 x first place (1998 t/m 2009)
• Grand Slam: Australian Open: 7 x first place
• Grand Slam: Roland Garros: 3 x first place

Double
• Paralympics: 2 x gold (2000 Sydney, 2004 Athene), 1 x silver (2008 Beijing)
• World Cup: 8 x first place (2000 t/m 2008)
• Grand Slam: Wimbledon: 1 x first place
• Grand Slam: US Open: 4 x first place
• ITF Super Series: British Open: 7 x first place
• ITF Super Series: Japan Open: 3 x first place
• ITF Super Series: USTA Open: 5 x first place
• Dutch Championship: 4 x Dutch champion

     Esther Vergeer at Paralympics in Beijing 2008



Road to the Paralympics 
07-02-12

We would like to start this blogpost with an amazing footage of the new movie: Road to London 2012. Unfortunately half of the footage and the subtitles are in Dutch but you can still see how three athletes are preparing for the Paralympics in London 2012. The film focuses on the power and the energy of the athletes and how they use this power to turn around their disadvantage into an advantage!

Something about the preparation for the Paralympics The preparation you see in the footage starts already in 2010, when the qualifications for the paralympic games began, and will continue until august 2012. This qualification is so severe that you will certainly see the best athletes during the games. First of all, each sport’s International Federation (IF) sets strict qualification criteria that athletes or teams have to meet. Of course, the type of qualification may vary between sports because certain athletes achieve qualification for themselves and others have to wait for the National Olympic Committee (NOC) to select their choice of athlete. There are also strict rules concerning how many athletes may enter per discipline or event. The last phase of the qualifications is when the IF confirms before a strict deadline set by the NOC which athletes have gained a place for the games. As you can see, participating in the paralympics is only reserved for the best!

More facts and interesting stories will follow here and via our Twitter and Facebook.