What We Love Wednesday - Paralympics London 2012

It's been awhile since our last What We Love Wednesday- in fact it's been awhile since our last post but we are back and trying to get back in the habit of sharing our inner most thoughts via the medium of blogging. We miss it when we don't do it and yet the longer the gap the harder it is to get back to it! To the post.....

This week we are getting back into the spirit of the Olympics, or should that be Paralympics. It's been 3 wet weeks since the closing ceremony that signaled the end of Britain's most successful Olympics and in that time the country and especially London has felt a sense of bereavement. Getting to work on Monday morning after the ceremony there was a somber feeling and no-one was quite ready to say goodbye. Living in London has its upsides though, as one event finishes we have just enough time to catch our breath before we have the chance to get all excited again.



Laura and I were lucky enough to get tickets for paralympics- we will be witnessing Athletic finals at the Olympic Stadium on the 7th of September and we CAN'T WAIT!!!

The adverts around London have been helping to build the anticipation, we can only imagine the effort that the athletes put in to compete in the Olympics, but David Cameron, Britain's Prime Minister, put it best 'the Olympic athletes did extraordinary things, but the Paralympic athletes overcome disadvantages and then go on to do really amazing things'. As Channel 4 have been saying, they are indeed 'SUPERHUMANS'!

We love being part of the city that is welcoming these superhumans, not just because it is changing perceptions of what people are capable of, but because it is also highlighting that being different is not a bad thing. Of course at this point we could say that helps the LGBT cause that is so relevant for us, but we do think any opportunity to increase tolerance and learn more about others is a good thing. We feel touched by the stories, in awe of the individuals who not only found ways to deal with their disabilities but overcome them and in the process make us feel like we want to join in. Wheelchair basketball looks AWESOME & there are no surprises that it is one of the most popular events to get tickets to.

While the modern Olympics were launched back in 1894 the Paralympics are a fairly new addition starting in 1948 but called the 'International Wheelchair games'. It wasn't until Seoul in 1988 that the games were officially termed 'paralympics'. The title 'paralympic' being derived from the Greek for 'beside' or 'alongside' referring to the fact that they are held in parallel to the Olympic games - in case you were wondering :) We had discussed our theory on where the name came from and thought it may be something to do with 'paraplegic' or 'paralysed', which in hindsight doesn't make to much sense so this research was as much for us!! :)

This year is by far the biggest Paralympics in history - not only has the Opening Ceremony sold all 90,000 tickets but almost all events are sold out - a first! We discovered just how lucky we were to get tickets when we came from holiday to this front page:

The motto of the Paralympics is 'Spirit in Motion' and the flag has 3 colours - red, blue and green - which are the colours most commonly used in the flags of the nations competing. The shapes are each in the shape of an Agito (which is Latin for "I move"). The three Agitos circle a central point, which is a symbol for the athletes congregating from all points of the globe. - thank you wikipedia!!!

We will keep you updated with what we seeing going on and what's happening around London - the flags are stilling flying, the motto 'inspire a generation' is still up in every station and on prominent roads the locations- let the party continue!!! After all WE LOVE LONDON!!!

Love always

Sarah & Laura

xoxo