‘greatest’ Paralympic Games Closes
The Closing Ceremony of the Paralympic Games brought London 2012 to an end last night, less than a month after the Olympic Closing Ceremony at the same venue. The Olympic Park will now close its doors for up to two years as it is reformed – with temporary venues taken down and some remaining venues altered – into the Queen Elizabeth II Olympic Park, set to open to the public in 2014.
Sir Philip Craven, President of the International Paralympic Committee, labelled the Games the best ever at the ceremony, in front of a packed Olympic Stadium.
Craven said: ‘The Paralympic Games have truly come home and found their pathway to the future here in London.’
‘The Paralympic Spirit which saw its first sparks of life in Stoke Mandeville some 64 years ago has followed a super-charged and surreal existence over the last 12 days. This has made the London 2012 Paralympic Games unique and without doubt, in my mind and those of the athletes the Greatest Paralympic Games Ever.’
Director Kim Gavin’s Ceremony – titled Festival of Flame – was molded together by numerous performances from British rock band Coldplay, who played 15 numbers in all.
Coldplay took the audience on a journey through autumn, winter, spring and summer.
It all began with a fitting tribute that honoured servicemen and women, particularly through the work of charity Help for Heroes, as double amputee Captain Luke Sinnott climbed to the top of the flagpole to fly the Union flag to the accompaniment of the National Anthem performed by Lissa Hermans, a blind autistic singer.
During a moving speech by Rory Mackenzie, who lost his leg on a patrol due to a roadside bomb, flags from the competing nations formed a heart shape on the field of play before the shape was burnt into the ground.
The ceremony saw Thomas Heatherwick’s Cauldron opened and, as the Flame began to fade, two of the stars of the Paralympic Games – Ellie Simmonds and Jonnie Peacock – arrived to transfer the final Flame to a London Paralympic Torch.
They then proceeded to light hundreds of torches held by members of the cast.
14-time Grammy award winner Jay-Z arrived on stage with Rihanna to perform Run This Town followed by a reprise of Coldplay’s Paradise.
The Ceremony ended with a firework display over the Olympic Stadium, with another a display also along the River Thames, and finally a projection on the Houses of Parliament of the words ‘Thank you London, thank you UK.’
