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Greg Dorey

Diplomat

Part of Stay Ahead of the Games UK in Ethiopia

16th February 2012

Flagging up the Paralympics

On Saturday last, the London 2012 Olympic flag could be seen by anyone driving past the British Embassy in Addis Ababa. Abebe Gidey, well-known sports journalist, kindly raised the flag to mark 200 days to go to the Paralympic Games. His Olympic Dreams Radio Programme has been featuring Ethiopian Olympians in recent weeks. We plan to ask other VIPs to raise the flag to mark key dates in the Olympics and Paralympics calendar.
Ambassador Greg and Abebe Gidey raised the Olympic flag

London 2012 is the first Games where the planning and organization of the Olympics and Paralympics has been fully integrated – disability access has been widely incorporated into the design of the events, with the aim of making this the most accessible Games ever. We want to make use of this opportunity to change the way people think, feel and behave towards disability and disability sport.

In 2012, the Paralympics return to the country where they began. In 1948, the first disability sport competition was held in Stoke Mandeveiile Hospital for wounded World War II veterans. In 2012 almost 4200 athletes will compete in 20 sports. And we hope that Ethiopia will be inspired by their most famous Paralympian, Abraham Habte, who competed in different sports in 1976 and 1980.

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