Live: Paralympic flame lighting ceremony at Stoke Mandeville Stadium

Tonight Stoke Mandeville Stadium and Vale Park will embrace this area's Paralympic legacy in spectacular fashion.
The last Paralympic flame lighting ceremony at Stoke Mandeville StadiumThe last Paralympic flame lighting ceremony at Stoke Mandeville Stadium
The last Paralympic flame lighting ceremony at Stoke Mandeville Stadium

And we will be on hand from the flame lighting ceremony to bring you a slice of the action.

Stoke Mandeville is the spiritual birthplace of the Paralympic Games.

The last Paralympic flame lighting ceremony at Stoke Mandeville StadiumThe last Paralympic flame lighting ceremony at Stoke Mandeville Stadium
The last Paralympic flame lighting ceremony at Stoke Mandeville Stadium

It was home to the first organised athletic day for disabled athletes that coincided with the Olympic Games and took place on the day of the opening of the 1948 Summer Olympics in London.

Jewish-German born doctor Ludwig Guttmann of Stoke Mandeville Hospital, hosted a sports competition for British Second World War veteran patients with spinal cord injuries. The first games were called the 1948 International Wheelchair Games, and were intended to coincide with the 1948 Olympics.

Dr Guttman’s aim was to create an elite sports competition for people with disabilities that would be equivalent to the Olympics.

The games were held again at the same location in 1952, and Dutch veterans took part alongside the British, making it the first international competition of its kind. These early competitions, also known as the Stoke Mandeville Games, have been described as the precursors of the Paralympic Games.

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