26/08/2012

Biography

Andre Brasil will be the one to beat in the men’s S10 class at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

The 28-year-old made a first international appearance at the 2006 IPC Swimming World Championships in Durban, South Africa, where he finished on top of the podium in four races: 50m, 100m and 400m Freestyle and the 100m Butterfly.

In addition to that, Brasil won two bronze medals, one in the 200m Individual Medley, the other one in the 4x100m Freestyle Relay (34 points).

Two years later, at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, Brasil became a four-time Paralympic Champion, taking the gold in the 50m, 100m and 400m Freestyle and in the 100m Butterfly.

Brasil finished second in the 200m Individual Medley. He was able to top this performance another two years later at the 2010 IPC Swimming World Championships in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, when he added one more gold medal in the 100m Backstroke in addition to the titles in the 50m, 100m, 400m Freestyle races and the 100m Butterfly.

As in Beijing, Brasil finished second in the 200m Individual Medley and one another silver medal with the 4x100m Freestyle relay (34 points).

Holding a total of eight world records, Brasil will be coming to London as the top favourite in his class and will surely try to further improve his results from Beijing.

SWIMMING

Andre Brasil

24th May 1984São Paulo, Brazil

LATEST TRIUMPHS:

2010 IPC Swimming World Championships - Gold: 50m, 100m & 400m Freestyle; 100m Backstroke & 100m Butterfly; Silver: 200m Individual Medley & 4x100m Freestyle Relay

Beijing 2008 Paralympics - Gold: 50m, 100m & 400m Freestyle, 100m Butterfly; Silver: 200m Individual Medley

2006 IPC Swimming World Championships - Gold: 50m, 100m & 400m Freestyle, 100m Butterfly; Bronze: 200m Individual Medley and 4x100m Freestyle Relay

World record holder in 50m, 100m, 200m & 800m Freestyle; 50m & 100m Backstroke, 100m Butterfly S10

London 2012 Events

200m Individual Medley SM10 (30 August)

50m Freestlye S10 (31 August)

100m Butterfly S10 (1 September)

4x100m Freestyle Relay 34 points (2 September)

100m Backstroke S10 (4 September)

400m Freestyle S10 (5 September)

100m Freestyle S10 (6 September)

4x100m Medley Relay 34 points (8 September)

Australian champion Kelly Cartwright

26/08/2012

The Australian will go into London 2012 as a double world champion after a sensational performance at the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships where she claimed gold in the Long Jump and 100m T42 events.

Cartwright only took up Athletics in 2006 after losing her right leg to cancer at 15, and her progress since then has been nothing short of meteoric.

Her first major international event was the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games. She finished sixth (18.92) in the 100m but describes the experience of pulling on the Australian vest and competing in front of 90,000 people in the Birds Nest stadium as her most memorable yet.

Since Beijing, Cartwright has rapidly improved and matured as an athlete.

At the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships, she won a thrilling Long Jump competition by setting a new world record of 4.19m, an improvement of 7cm on the previous best.

She followed this up with victory in the 100m. Her winning time of 16.46 seconds, knocked half a second off the Championship record, but was still 0.08 seconds off her personal best set in 2009.

What her performance did highlight though is that if she goes into London in good form then fellow Australian Michelle Errichiello’s 100m world record of 16.31 seconds, set in April 2010 could be in serious jeopardy.

It is not just her performances on the track though that have been getting Cartwright noticed.

She is an ambassadors for the Make-A-Wish foundation, a charity set up to enrich the lives of seriously ill children, and in 2009 she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa and fourth tallest in the world, for the Humpty Dumpty Foundation, a charity that supports children's hospitals in Australia and East Timor.

In August 2011 to mark one year to go until London 2012, British tabloid newspaper the Daily Mirror featured Cartwright in its Top 10 Paralympic Pin-ups.

By the time of London 2012, Cartwright will be 23 years old and certainly one to watch both on and off the track.

Canada announces London 2012 media coverage

25/08/2012

The Canadian Paralympic Committee has announced both the television and online streaming coverage for this year’s Paralympic Games.

Coverage of the Opening and Closing ceremonies, and daily highlight shows will be available on CTV, TSN2, Sportsnet ONE, RDS, RDS2, and AMI.The Opening Ceremony will take place on 29 August and will be broadcast live on RDS2 from 3:30 p.m. local time.

Félix Séguin and Canada's Chef de Mission Dr. Gaétan Tardif will present the Opening Ceremony on RDS2, while Paul Roman UK and Canada's Assistant Chef de Mission Elisabeth Walker-Young will provide English language commentary. The Ceremony will also be repeated on TSN2 and AMI from 9 p.m.

Once the Games commence, daily highlights of the day’s best performances, medal winners, athlete interviews, and features will be hosted by Roman UK and broadcast from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. every day until 8 September on TSN2 and Sports net ONE.

Félix Séguin will also host RDS2’s French language coverage of the games from 11 p.m. most days throughout the games, with coverage repeated the following morning.

Complete coverage of the Closing Ceremony on 9 September will be available on Sports net ONE and AMI at 9 p.m with Romanuk and Walker-Young commentating. French language commentary will come again from Séguin and Tardif which will be broadcast the following day on 10 September from 2 p.m.

For the first time online streaming will provide multiple streams of the Paralympic Games across all 11 days of competition. Five streams will offer a total of 780 hours of live coverage, including uninterrupted feeds of swimming, wheelchair basketball, and athletics, while two channels will showcase a range of sports and will show a “best of” compilation from each day.

All digital channels can be accessed from CTVParalympics.ca and RDSparalympiques.ca. A comprehensive video on demand and Paralympic news library will be available online and on mobile devices.

Not only will the Paralympic Games be a great spectacle, the Canadian Paralympic Team has some fantastic medal hopefuls. Michelle Stilwell has dominated the recent history of the T52 sprint events – winning gold in the 100m, 200m, and 400m at last year’s IPC Athletics World Championships and taking gold in Beijing in both the 100m and 200m.

The Canadian men also have a fantastic medal chance in the wheelchair basketball, despite finishing in seventh place at the last World Championships. Canada won a medal at every other Paralympics and World Championships of the last 10 years.

London Olympics:QUEEN, SPICE GIRLS, JESSIE J, MUSE PERFORM AT OLYMPIC CLOSING CEREMONY

Queen, The Who and Jessie J were amongst the performers at last night's Olympic Games closing ceremony (Aug 12).

Taking place in the Olympic Stadium, the Symphony of British Music saw the past sixty years of music in the UK played out with some of the key figures from each decade performing live.

The Spice Girls staged  their latest comeback with all five members of the group arriving in the stadium via personalised cars, singing 'Spice Up Your Life' as they went.

Elsewhere, there were performances from The Who, Ed Sheeran, Pink Floyd, Pet Shop Boys, The Kinks' Ray Davies, Kaiser Chiefs, Annie Lennox, One Direction and Monty Python's Eric Idle. In a bizarre segment of the show, comedian Russell Brand performed a version of The Beatles 'I Am The Walrus'.

As expected, Take That appeared with Gary Barlow - just days after he lost his newborn daughter Poppy. The group performed their hit 'Rule The World' as celebratory fireworks exploded around them.

Elsewhere, Liam Gallagher performed the Oasis classic 'Wonderwall' with his Beady Eye bandmates and Muse performed their Olympic single 'Survival'. George Michael also made an appearance, performing his hit single 'Freedom' as well as new track 'White Light'.

However, it was Jessie J who made perhaps the most contributions to the closing ceremony, performing by herself, with Tinie Tempah, Taio Cruz and again with Queen. Dressed in a nude catsuit, Jessie sang 'Price Tag', 'Written In The Stars' and then joined Taio Cruz on a version of the Bee Gees' 'You Should Be Dancing' before singing 'We Will Rock You' alongside Brian May and Roger Taylor.

The closing ceremony bowed out in style, however, with The Who playing 'My Generation' to all 80,000 fans inside the stadium.

London Olympics:OLYMPIC CLOSING CEREMONY TO BE 'THE BEST PARTY THERE HAS EVER BEEN

Rehearsals continue today for the end of London 2012, with organisers behind the closing ceremony promising that the close of the Olympics will be the 'best party ever'.

Finishing touches are being put on the show, which will feature performances from Take That, The Spice Girls, Annie Lennox and many more huge names from British music. The event closes two weeks of sport after a hugely successful Olympic Games.

"We want it to be the best after-show party there has ever been," says Artistic Director Kim Gavin, who refused to give further details of the event. "Any more than that and we would spoil the surprise," he added, before saying: "We are still rehearsing and waiting for the final line-up.""It is about British creativity in the arts. There is a hell of a lot of talent and music and a hell of a lot of show in the show."

Photos from rehearsals for the show emerged yesterday (10 August, 2012) which showed The Spice Girls performing on top of black taxis in the stadium. Earlier this week it was rumoured that Kate Bush would make an appearance at the show, but her performance has yet to be confirmed.

Take That are on the line up for Sunday night's show, and Gary Barlow is said to be determined to perform,despite the loss this week of fourth daughter Poppy, who was stillborn.

London Olympics:Marcel Nguyen of Germany competes on the Parallel Bars

Marcel Nguyen of Germany competes on the Parallel Bars during the Artistic Gymnastics men's Parallel Bars final on Day 11 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at North Greenwich Arena

London Olympics:Lu Sui of China competes in the Beam final

Lu Sui of China competes on the Beam during the Artistic Gymnastics women's Beam final on Day 11 at North Greenwich Arena.