Torch begins its journey at English home of Paralympic Games

STOKE MANDEVILLE, United Kingdom: Four days before the Paris Paralympic Games begin, the Paralympic flame was on Saturday lit next to the English hospital where the idea for the competition was born.

British Paralympic athletes Gregor Ewan and Helen Raynsford battled pouring rain to light the flame.

“It has been such an honour to be able to take part in this,” said Raynsford, the first Paralympic champion in para-rowing when the sport debuted in Beijing in 2008.

Ewan has competed in wheelchair curling three times at the Winter Games.

The Paralympic movement dates back to 1948, when German neurologist Ludwig Guttmann organised sporting events for injured war veterans at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, northwest of London.

“He created a sporting and social movement that today has a profound impact globally, advancing the lives of millions of persons with disabilities,” said Andrew Parsons, International Paralympic Committee president.

The flame was lit in a stadium not far from the hospital where Guttman worked.

This is the first time since 2012 and the London Games that the Paralympic flame has been lit in Stoke Mandeville.

“Behind this flame is a powerful message of peace… and other strong values,” said Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris 2024 organising committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, hailing Guttman´s “vision”.

The three-time Olympic canoeing champion joked that the “capricious” weather was still “with us”, a month after the opening ceremony of the Paris games was hit by a similar deluge.

The Stoke Mandeville Games were held to coincide with the 1948 London Olympics on grounds next to the hospital, which were then developed into the stadium where Saturday´s ceremony took place.

The first Paralympic Games took place in Rome in 1960, with 400 athletes competing from 23 countries.

The flame will pass through the Channel Tunnel on Sunday, with 24 British torchbearers taking it halfway, before handing it over to 24 French torchbearers, who will take it to Calais.

Then 12 torches will travel across France from Sunday to Wednesday. The flame will then reach Paris and the Olympic cauldron, located in the Tuileries Gardens.

A thousand torchbearers will take turns in around 50 cities. These include the Grand Palais, the Chateau de Versailles and the Stade de France.