London 2012 Paralympics will leave us with more lasting memories than Olympics

Blade Runner: Oscar Pistorius will be the star of the Paralympics (Photo: REUTERS)

Come the end of 2012 when Britons look back on a colourful year we will remember snatches of Olympic experiences – the torch, the competition, the tears, the shocks, the partying.

But when it comes to raw and rich emotional connections to sport, it will be the Paralympics that touch the heart.

Today marks one year to go until the opening ceremony of the London Paralympic Games, and in typical Paralympic fashion it has gone largely unremarked.

Organisers are leaving most of the promotion until next week when tickets go on sale and Oscar Pistorius arrives at Trafalgar Square, direct from the world track and field championships in Daegu and fresh from reminding people that athletes with a disability are primarily athletes.

The 1.5 million tickets on sale to the public will help Locog raise £30 million in ticket revenue.

For there is something grounding and innocent about the Paralympics that will catch us all by surprise.

The struggles that engulf the athletes just to accomplish their everyday tasks is herculean.

Then on top of that swimmers with one arm, cyclists that are blind, runners that have no legs will remind us of how good we really have it – and it is delivered by the Paralympians unfailingly with a wicked dose of black humour about their particular disability.

That is how the Paralympics have prospered over the past two decades to an ever-increasingly appreciative audience.

But there are some small challenges for the London Paralympics. For the first time the Paralympics are being televised by a different broadcaster, and sponsored by their own sponsor.

Clearly Channel Four  and Sainsbury’s have smartly tapped into the drawing power of the Paralympians’ quests.

The promotion and airtime and focus on the Paralympics will be unprecedented and richly deserved.

But there is a fine line between telling a story and exploiting a story, so too between empathy and sympathy.The Paralympics have been rocked in the past by scandals involving athletes faking their disability, by drugs and by the debate about technological aids.

Strangely this gives the Paralympics more credibility and a dose of realism. For the Paralympics is also real sport.

When the Paralympics kick off in London in August 2012 we will have thought that our wonderment at human performance from the Olympics couldn’t be surpassed, but then it is.  A hundred times over. And it is not through world records or multi gold medals. It is the personal stories: that will grab you and shake you and change you.