London To Host Ipc World Champs
London has been announced as the host city of the 2017 IPC Athletics World Championships. The Championships are the largest single-sport competition for athletes with an impairment in the world and take place on a bi-annual basis.
The Championships will be held in July 2017 at the Olympic Stadium, just a month before the same venue plays host to the IAAF World Athletics Championships. London will become the first city to host the two Championships side-by-side, recreating the summer of sport which transformed the British capital in the summer of 2012.
The Greater London Authority will organise the Championships, partnering with UK Athletics, ParalympicsGB, the London Borough of Newham, the London Legacy Development Corporation and the University of East London.
During the bid process, London Mayor Boris Johnson used the success of London 2012 to argue for the return of international Paralympic competition to the British capital, which receives 26 million overnight visitors annually.
Boris Johnson, Mayor of London and chairman of the London Legacy Development Corporation, said: ‘This year London just staged the best spectacle of sport the world has seen. By bringing the IPC Athletics World Championships to our wonderful Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park just a month before the World Athletics Championships, the capital is poised to recreate the magic of 2012.’
Johnson added: ‘London’s Paralympic Games were the first ever to sell out, and these Championships provide a perfect chance to build on that enthusiasm for disabled sport, bringing back the world’s greatest Paralympians to the Olympic Stadium, and at the same time providing a major economic boost to the capital.’
Ed Warner, IPC athletics sport technical committee chairperson and chair of UK Athletics, said: ‘The UK’s capital city has already demonstrated its ability to provide an excellent experience for athletes and spectators alike. London 2017 will bring record crowds for an IPC World Championships, creating an ideal backdrop for athletes to break records, further raising the profile of sport for people with an impairment in the process.’
