page_title: 2012 Summer Paralympics
section_title: Lead-up and promotion
hierarchical_section_title: 2012 Summer Paralympics / Development and preparation / Lead-up and promotion
caption_attribution_description: Countdown
context_page_description: The 2012 Summer Paralympics, the 14th Summer Paralympic Games, and also more generally known as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, that took place in London, United Kingdom from 29 August to 9 September 2012. These Paralympics were one of the largest multi-sport events ever held in the United Kingdom after the 2012 Summer Olympics, and until the date the largest Paralympics ever: 4,302 athletes from 164 National Paralympic Committees participated, with fourteen countries appearing in the Paralympics for the first time ever.
  The lead-up to these games prominently emphasized the return of the Paralympic movement to its spiritual birthplace: in 1948, the British village of Stoke Mandeville first hosted the Stoke Mandeville Games, an athletics event for disabled British veterans of the Second World War held to coincide with the opening of the Summer Olympics in London. They were the first-ever organized sporting event for disabled athletes and served as a precursor to the modern Paralympic Games.
caption: A digital clock in Trafalgar Square, counting down to the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Paralympics
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