London 2012
The London 2012 Paralympic Games will take place from 29 August - 9 September and will see the Paralympic Movement return to the country of its spiritual birthplace.
They will be the biggest Paralympic Games ever, featuring 4,200 athletes from 160 countries across 20 sports.
Channel 4 has been appointed as UK host broadcaster and in the lead-up to the Games has screened a number of programmes designed to raise the profile on athletes and their sports.
BBC Radio 5 has been awarded the UK radio rights and is planning to broadcast live commentary and analysis from the Games.
The IPC has also appointed the Press Association as host national news agency to provide the most comprehensive coverage yet for events in the run up to London 2012 and the Paralympic Games themselves.
The London 2012 Paralympic Torch Relay will begin in London on 24 August with the lighting of England’s flame in Trafalgar Square.
The United Kingdom’s other three capital cities – Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh – will then light a flame on each of the following days, at special events, and each city will develop its own unique method of lighting.
Once a flame has been lit, it will visit local community groups and key locations in and around the city. In addition to the lighting events there will be a series of evening celebrations called Flame Festivals, which will include plenty of activities and entertainment.
Each flame will then be taken to Stoke Mandeville, spiritual home of the Paralympic Movement, where the four flames will be combined at a Paralympic Flame Lighting Ceremony on 28 August to create the London 2012 Paralympic Flame.
A 24-hour Torch Relay, involving 580 torchbearers running in teams of five, will then take the flame from Stoke Mandeville to the Olympic Stadium to light the cauldron at the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
London was elected to be the host city for the 2012 Games on 6 July 2007, at the 117th International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Singapore.
Following four rounds of voting by IOC members, London eventually triumphed by taking 54 votes from a possible 104. Other cities competing for the right to host the Games were Paris (France), New York (USA), Moscow (Russia) and Madrid (Spain).
