Cities bid for Paralympic success

By Elizabeth Hudson

Those cities bidding to host the 2012 Olympics know that a strong Paralympic bid will do their hopes of selection no harm.

Although much attention is focused on the Olympics, a successful Paralympics is also a measure of how a city has achieved its goals.

Sydney in 2000 was a resounding success while Athens - although lacking the crowds and enthusiasm of Sydney - still achieved a lot despite Greece not having a strong tradition of disabled sport.

Revisit the Athens Paralympics

After China topped the medal table in Athens with 141 medals (including 63 golds), they are expected to make Beijing in 2008 a Paralympics to remember.

It puts more pressure on those bidding for 2012 to come up with a strong plan to continue the development of the world's second-largest sporting event.

BBC Sport looks at what London and the four other 2012 candidate cities - Paris, Moscow, New York and Madrid - are promising for the Paralympics.

HISTORY

When it comes to disability sport, Britain has led the way for many years and London is aiming to maintain that tradition.

Back in 1948, it was Sir Ludwig Guttmann, a neurologist working with World War II veterans with spinal injuries at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, who began using sport as part of his patients rehabilitation process.

He set up a competition with other hospitals to coincide with the London Olympics that year.

Over the next decade, his care plan was adopted by other spinal injury units in Britain and competition grew until the first modern Paralympics in Rome in 1960.

How the Paralympics have evolved

Moscow hosted the 1980 Olympics, but a political row led to the Paralympics being held instead in Arnhem in Holland.

Madrid will be encouraged by the successful 1992 Games in Barcelona, where 3,500 athletes from 82 countries took part.

New York has already co-hosted a Paralympics in 1984, along with Stoke Mandeville but their hopes of success for 2012 will not be helped by American television network NBC almost ignoring the Athens Games.

While British television viewers got daily live coverage, American viewers had to be content with a half-hour programme, shown two months after the end of the Paralympics.

VENUES

All of the bidding cities are planning to use most of the same Olympic facilities and are emphasising easy access for athletes, their families and spectators.

In addition, in all cases the Olympic Village will also be used as the Paralympic Village.

A London Paralympics would see at least one dedicated venue with the Olympic Park tennis centre in East London to be built specially for the Paralympics.

The Olympic Park forms a key part of the London bid and it is hoped could help regenerate the area.

An aerial view of London's planned Olympic Park for 2012

In pictures

Eleven of the 20 venues selected for the Paralympics are within the Olympic Park which would reduce travelling time for athletes.

Other venues like the Excel Exhibiton Centre and the Dome which are both within easy reach of the Olympic Park, would also be used.

Paris' strength is the fact that many of their venues are already built and are wheelchair accessible.

The Stade de France has already staged some Paralympic events during the 2003 World Athletics Championships, including two wheelchair races and two blind races.

New York also promises much in the line of new investment with most sports centred around the so-called Olympic X - two intersecting transport axes.

Much of Moscow's plan involves modernising existing facilities but in a country where disability sport does not have a high priority, it is unclear how much work would need to be done to make the venues accessible.

Like Paris, many of Madrid's facilities are already built and they are promising a "car-free" event focused around three main zones.

TRANSPORT

A fully accessible transport system is key to any city's bid and improvements in transport systems and dedicated traffic lanes are part of all five plans.

London organisers claim that their improved transport system could allow up to 320,000 people an hour in and out of the Olympic Park with a journey time from central London of just seven minutes.

But although the new developments and much of the Jubilee line and DLR are already accessible, large chunks of the London Underground remain inaccessible.

Transport is a key issue for the London Olympic and Paralympic bid

In New York, more than 200 subway and suburban railway stations are already accessible while all New York City buses are equipped with wheelchair lifts and reserved seating.

Plans are underway to upgrade accessibility to stations which serve Paralympic venues.

Paris says the awarding of the Games would advance the city's current programme to improve the accessibility of public transport.

Under that programme, all stations serving competition venues will be made fully accessible.

Seven Metro stations, which are located at transfer points, will also be made accessible while the Tramway system is already fully-accessible and it is hoped the bus network would be fully accessible by 2012.

LEGACY

As well as promising the venues which will be used in the Games and beyond, which would be a huge boost to sport in the cities, each of the candidates are keen to use the event to promote the disability cause.

Education and marketing are key themes which go through all of the bids.

At the launch of the London bid, 11-times Paralympic gold medalist Tanni Grey Thompson said that she hoped that holding the Games in Britain would inspire a generation of young disabled athletes.

London has also produced an education resource pack for schools to teach them more about the Paralympics.

Plans were also unveiled for a five-day Olympic and Paralympic Carnival which would bridge the gap between the close of the Olympics and the start of the Paralympics.

Paris says it wants to improve attitudes towards people with a disability and improve their living conditions.

It is also aiming to integrate people with a disability into professional and corporate sectors and promote the development of accessible sporting activities.

New York is promising to strengthen youth programmes to increase opportunities for disabled athletes and also hold a global summit on sport and disability.