Britain’s Paralympic team have been officially welcomed into the Athletes’ Village in a colourful ceremony witnessed by Games volunteers, officials and politicians, on the day before the Games are declared open.
Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, acting Paralympic Village Mayor and 11 times a Paralympic gold medallist, told the athletes: “After years of early morning practice, after hours and hours of dedicated training, after all of the struggle and sacrifice, your time has come.
“We are so excited that you are finally here and can’t wait to experience the extraordinary talent, excitement and pride you will bring to our city and everyone in our country.
“Through these Games we want to inspire lasting change across the world. You as athletes can help us to achieve this."
Referring to the founder of the Paralympic movement, Ludwig Guttmann, she said; “He would be immensely proud of you all. You are his legacy.”
The ceremony was witnessed by Mayor of London Boris Johnson, the Minister for Sport and the Olympics Hugh Robertson MP, and by Dame Tessa Jowell MP, the Shadow Minister for the Olympics and Shadow Minister for London.
Craig Hunter said: “That was the most amazing welcome ceremony. We had virtually all of our team present and that was a special and quite unique moment.
“I was the proudest person in the whole world when I walked up to be greeted by Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson.
“It was a really defining moment for the team. Bring on the Games! Everyone is ready for the competition to start.”
The 30-minute welcome ceremony celebrated Britain’s two Elizabethan ages and featured dancers dressed in Elizabethan ruffs and urban street-wear. The cast have performed the ceremony 42 times for teams arriving at the Olympic Park.
Very diverse, very different, exciting and upbeat. . .It's going to be amazingPeter Norfolk
“There’s no Opening Ceremony for me so this was my Opening Ceremony,” she said. “It was very different to what I’ve ever seen before.”
Coates, who has seven medals and has won three Paralympic titles, added: “There’s only one thing to go for and that’s the gold. My expectations are still the same. You always want to same thing, although every [Games] is different.”
Tennis player Peter Norfolk described the ceremony as “very diverse, very different, exciting and upbeat”.
The double Paralympic champion, 51, who will be Great Britain’s flagbearer at Wednesday’s Opening Ceremony, said: “It is going to be just amazing. I can’t wait.
“Coming into the stadium with 80,000 people is going to be fantastic and leading our greatest ever team out, I’m dumbfounded that I was chosen to do it.
“Everyone has been coming up to me with congratulations [since the announcement]; it’s been wonderful.”
Fellow tennis player Jamie Burdekin, a Liverpudlian who will be appearing at his second Games, said: “I certainly wasn’t expecting anything like that. Now I know the Paralympics are actually starting.
“We’ve just arrived from a tennis camp at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton and this has blown everything out of the water.
“I can see the stands of the tennis arena from here [in the Village]. I am imagining them full of British fans, and it makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.”
Archer Mel Clarke from Worcester thoroughly enjoyed the display, saying: “It was absolutely awesome, especially coming down and seeing everyone along the bank cheering. The noise was phenomenal. It was definitely an experience I will never forget.”
Goalball player Joe Dodson, from Leicester, added: “That was really captivating, interesting and probably a good advert for what the Games will be, which is very loud.”
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