London Paralympic Opening Ceremony 2012

Video in CC (english transcilbed) Highlights from the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.



It was billed as an 'exquisite journey of discovery' and last night's Paralympic Opening Ceremony called Enlightenment, certainly lived up to its hype.



The show may have only had a fraction of the funding given to the Opening Ceremony of the Games a few weeks earlier, but the message behind the title was clear as a host of deaf and disabled artists, local children and performers all featured in the show-stopping event.



The roars of the crowd as paralympic athletes from across the world graced the stadium showed the nation's pleasure that the competition has returned to its 1948 birthplace. Video source Channel4News

Video source by FirstRaceTv

Opening Ceremony

The Olympic Cauldron designed by Thomas Heatherwick
photo credits: BBC News

The London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony took place yesterday and was one of the most emotioning moments I have ever experienced. Titled 'Isles of Wonder', the Ceremony welcomed the finest athletes from more than 200 nations for the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games, marking an historic third time the capital has hosted the world’s biggest and most important sporting event.

The Opening Ceremony reflected the key themes and priorities of the London 2012 Games, based on sport, inspiration, youth and urban transformation. It was a Ceremony for everyone and celebrated contributions the UK has made to the world through innovation and revolution, as well as the creativity and exuberance of British people, from rural Britain to the Industrial Revolution, over to contemporary music and cinema. The comedic, quintessentially British moment complemented a show that film director Danny Boyle, an Oscar winner for "Slumdog Millionaire", turned into an unabashed celebration of the host Nation's history, culture and eccentricity.

The highest moment in the first part of the Ceremony was when Daniel Craig, wearing his trademark tuxedo, enters Buckingham Palace to meet Her Majesty, The Queen, with her two corgis at her feet and in a dramatic cinematic debut She turns from a writing desk and says simply: "Good evening, Mr. Bond." The moment drew a huge cheer from the audience, not used to seeing Her Majesty play such an informal part in proceedings and coincides with a resurgence in the Royal Family's popularity.

James Bond escorting Her Majesty The Queen to the Games
photo credits: Barbican Centre FB page

The spectacular finale of the event saw the Olympic Cauldron, formed of 205 copper petals representing the competing nations coming together in London for the Games, ignited by seven young Torchbearers nominated by Britain’s past and present Olympic and sporting greats. For exclusive behind-the-scenes access go to Ceremonies Explorer.

Deaf Children Performance At London Olympics Opening Ceremony

Video: Deaf children performance at London Olympics opening ceremony.



London - IT is a celebration of all that is best about Great Britain.



Thousands of people began to file into the state-of-the-art arena in the Olympic Park, a sprawling network of sporting venues, athletes’ accommodation, media centres and restaurants built in a previously run-down area of London’s East End.



With £27million spent, 10,000 people taking part, scenes from rolling countryside to the industrial revolution, not to mention the biggest names from stage and screen, with sheep, chickens and geese, the Olympics Opening Ceremony promises to be a spectacle on an epic scale.



Almost four billion people are expected to be watching on TV around the world, as well as more than 60,000 inside the stadium, the official start to 17 days of drama when more than 16,000 athletes from 204 countries will contest sport’s ultimate prize – Olympic Gold.

Video by hipas8



A DEAF children's choir evocatively sang the British national anthem in their pyjamas and 600 real-life health workers took part in dance routines celebrating the free British health service. A choir of Deaf children are singing God Save The Queen (not the Pistols' version)



The Kaos Signing Choir For Deaf and Hearing Children singing the national anthem, led by Deaf percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie.

Let the Games begin...

To herald the first day of the London 2012 Olympic Games, today at 8.12am Big Ben and thousands of bells across the United Kingdom will ring out as loudly as possible for three minutes to welcome the Games.

The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad, also known informally as London 2012, is scheduled  from 27 July (when the opening ceremony is held) until 12 August 2012. Over 10,000 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) are expected to participate.

Following a bid headed by former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe and the then Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, London was selected as the host city on 6 July 2005 during the 117th IOC Session in Singapore, defeating bids from Moscow, New York, Madrid and Paris. London will become the first city to officially host the modern Olympic Games three times, having previously done so in 1908 and in 1948.

photo credits: Wikipedia and The Logo Factory

The Olympic Stadium
found pic @ Wikipedia

Construction in preparation for the Games has involved considerable redevelopment, particularly themed towards sustainability. The main focus of this is a new 200 hectare Olympic Park, constructed on a former industrial site at Stratford in the east of London. The Games also make use of many venues which were already in place before the bid.
Leaner, greener and cleaner could be London 2012's motto as sustainability and ecology are pushed to the forefront.

photo credits: The Logo Factory

The official mascots for the 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games were unveiled on 19 May 2010; this marks the second time (after Vancouver) that both Olympic and Paralympic mascots were unveiled at the same time. Wenlock and Mandeville are animations depicting two drops of steel from a steelworks in Bolton. They are named Wenlock, after the Shropshire town of Much Wenlock, which held a forerunner of the current Olympic Games, and Mandeville, after Stoke Mandeville, a village in Buckinghamshire where a forerunner to the Paralympic Games were first held. The writer Michael Morpurgo wrote the story concept to the mascots, and an animation was produced; it is intended that this will form part of an ongoing series concerning the mascots in the run-up to the Games in 2012. Two stories have been created about the mascots: Out Of A Rainbow, the story of how Wenlock and Mandeville came to be, and Adventures On A Rainbow, which features the children from Out Of A Rainbow meeting the mascots and trying out many different Olympic and Paralympic sports.

photo credits: BBC News UK

Approximately 4,700 Olympic and Paralympic medals have been produced by the Royal Mint. They were designed by David Watkins (Olympics) and Lin Cheung (Paralympics). Virtually all the gold, silver and copper was mined in Salt Lake County. Each medal weighs 375–400g, has a diameter of 85mm and is 7mm thick, with the sport and discipline engraved on the rim. The obverse, as is traditional, features Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, stepping from the Panathinaiko Stadium that hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, with Parthenon in the background; the reverse features the Games logo, the River Thames and a series of lines representing "the energy of athletes and a sense of pulling together". The medals were transferred to the Tower of London vaults on 2nd July 2012 for storage.

Melanie Oliveira
photo credits: RTP

Lit in Greece, the Olympic Flame arrived in the UK on 18th May 2012 before setting out the next day on a 70-day Olympic Torch Relay, bringing the excitement of the Games to everyone. The Olympic Flame stands for peace, unity and friendship. It has travelled to within an hour of 95% of people in the UK, the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey during the 70-day Torch Relay. It enabled local communities to shine a light on the best their area has to offer. 8,000 inspirational people carried the Olympic Flame as it journeys across the UK. Nominated by someone they know, it was their moment to shine, inspiring millions of people watching in their community, in the UK and worldwide. Last Monday it was the time of a Portuguese fighter to carry it. Her name is Melanie Oliveira and she's been struggling against multiple sclerosis for years. I felt deeply honoured of being Portuguese!

London is ready and so are we! It is high time to inspire a whole generation: let the Games begin!

photo credits: London 2012

photo credits: Visit London FB page

Sources: Wikipedia, London 2012 , BBC News and The Guardian

London is getting ready

The Olympic Games will get started in a week. The city is more magical than ever before... look at this incredible aerial photo by the well-known Jason Hawkes!

photo credits: Jason Hawkes @ The Time Out blog

Olympic Games 2012

As I believe you all know, 2012 is an Olympic year. The Games will take place in London, just like it happened in 1948. 

Under the motto Inspire a Generation, one the biggest worldwide events will occur between July 27 and August 12. 

The Olympic Torch is now travelling around the UK. The torch is a tradition carried over from ancient Greece when fire was revered as a gift from the god Prometheus. Greeks would hold relay races, passing a torch between athletes and light a cauldron during their games as a symbol of purity, reason and peace. The flame was reintroduced to the Olympics at the 1928 Amsterdam Games but the first modern torch relay was at the 1936 Berlin Summer Games when a flame was lit in Olympia, Greece and carried to the opening ceremony in Germany. Since the 1964 Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria every Olympics has begun with a torch relay from Greece to the opening ceremony, so 2012 wasn't an exception. 
You can get all the official information about events, athletes, results,   news and photos in London 2012 Olympics Website. You can see the official logo for 2012 on the right.

At Escola Básica e Secundária de Pinheiro, the teachers of Physical Education decided to join this major sports event and motivate not only students, but also the entire school community to engage in the Olympic spirit. Each class represents a country in the competition, which will get its climax in the Olympic Day, next June 8. My class direction - 9th A - is defending the colours of Ecuador... That is why I posted, yesterday, their incredible sewing work with that country's flag! 


photo credit 1: theirhistory via photo pin cc
photo credit 2: Wikia
photo credit 3: Olympic Games 2012 logo
photo credit 4: EBS de Pinheiro Website