The Paralympics and the summer of sporting achievement

Bright and early at the Olympic Stadium

After enjoying the London 2012 Olympics so much, both on television and when we went to the Olympic Park - read about our day here - I was so glad, like so many others, that we still had the Paralympics to come, and I wished that I had tried to buy tickets for these Games too. So, after many hours of fruitless attempts, I finally got lucky on the ticket website, with some tickets for an athletics session in the Olympic Stadium. I was thrilled with this, and we had a wonderful morning. 

David Weir in the 800m T54 heats

We were able to witness the brilliant GB wheelchair racer David Weir commandingly win his heat in the 800m T54 qualifying and then proudly cheer for him as he received his gold medal for his victory in the 1500m only the evening before - thus he was back in the stadium competing in the 800m heats after only having about five hours sleep! Alongside his feats, we saw some exciting field event finals, other track heats, and it all made for a very enjoyable experience watching these fantastic, determined competitors. 

David Weir 

I loved watching the Paralympics on tv. All of the classifications became easy to follow once explained. Whatever barriers there may have been, or seemed to have been, to watching Paralympic sport in the past seem to have been broken down. These tremendous competitors are famous sporting heroes for us now too, and quite rightly so. Not least 100m T44 gold medalist Jonnie Peacock who is a local hero from our area. It was marvellous watching the parade through London on television, with the athletes all together as one giant GB team.

As for the tennis well, as a fan of Wimbledon ever since I can remember - my hero was always Boris Becker as I remember him winning the tournament for the first time as a youngster - it has been my dream, like that of so many folk, to see a British winner in the singles tournament. It was therefore sad to see Andy Murray come so far and then lose in the final here this year. But, to then see him come back in the Olympics at Wimbledon and take that gold medal, and then, the day after the Paralympics finished, to hear that he had won the US Open, what a superb achievement. 

This has been such a marvellous couple of months. I hope we can keep some of the momentum and postive lifting of spirits that it has brought, both personally and as a nation.

One thing though, how on earth are they going to decide the Sports Personality of the Year this year?!