page_title: 2012 Summer Paralympics
section_title: Torch relay
hierarchical_section_title: 2012 Summer Paralympics / Development and preparation / Torch relay
caption_attribution_description: Wheelchair-bound torchbearers on route to the 2012 Summer Paralympics. The central person in a wheelchair is Simon Richardson (Welsh cyclist), double gold medal winner at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing. He talks about being a torch bearer at Canary Wharf on his blog and it is reiterated on the BBC News.
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.
context_section_description: The Paralympic torch relay began on 22 August, when groups of integrated scouts kindled four Paralympic flames on the highest peaks of each nation of the United Kingdom; Scafell Pike in England, Ben Nevis in Scotland, Slieve Donard in Northern Ireland, and Snowdon in Wales. On 24 August the four flames were used to light ceremonial cauldrons in London, Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff during special "Flame Festival" events; smaller "Flame Celebration" events were also held in various communities over the bank holiday weekend.
  On 28 August the four flames were united during a ceremony at Stoke Mandeville Stadium. The flame then travelled a 92-mile (148-kilometre) route to Olympic Stadium in a 24-hour relay, with 580 torchbearers working in teams of five. After a two-hour weather delay, a backup flame was taken straight to the stadium as a contingency, and the relay route was modified. However, as the opening ceremony's parade of nations took longer than expected, the flame was able to arrive at Olympic Stadium in time.
caption: A group of torchbearers in wheelchairs bringing the Paralympic flame through Canary Wharf.
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