International Paralympic Committee (IPC) president Philip Craven is optimistic that the London 2012 Paralympics will be the best yet.
London will welcome a record-breaking number of athletes and participating countries – 4,200 athletes and 166 national Paralympic committees – and the IPC are encouraged by strong ticket sales and broadcast deals ahead of today’s opening ceremony.
“All the ingredients are there for the best Paralympic Games,” said Craven.
“The athletes come first. If it is right for the athletes everything else falls into place and LOCOG have placed the athletes at the centre of the Games.
“Ticket sales are at 2.4 million now and we have record broadcast deals. It is time for the athletes to deliver and I am sure they will.”
London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe said the organising committee were “on target to have record tickets sales”.
He revealed that 50,000 of the 70,000 tickets made available on the London 2012 website on Monday had gone by 8 a.m. Tuesday and that around half-a-million tickets had been sold to fans from overseas.
“As I’ve said before this is not a country that is going to sit this one out and it’s very exciting for us,” said Coe.
“The Games are integrated but distinct and we’re looking forward to fantastic days ahead.”
China topped the medals table in Beijing with 211 ahead of Great Britain with 102 and the United States with 99 and the Chinese are expected to continue their dominance in London.
UK Sport have set the British team a target of at least 103 medals and Craven believes it will not be easy to achieve.
“A repeat performance by the British team when other countries are coming up fast on the rails will be difficult,” he said.
“The USA are coming back very strongly and Brazil will have a bigger team than ever. We also have 16 new countries taking part, including eight from Africa, and that excites me as much as the big countries’ battle for medals.”
There will also be a record-breaking number of women competing in London with 1,513 set to take part, more than at any of the previous Games and more than double the 700 who competed at Barcelona 1992.
Craven acknowledged the amount of coverage of the Paralym-pics being shown in North America was “disappointing for the athletes of those countries” but also pointed out that the IPC plan to stream 780 hours of live sport on their own online TV channel, Paralympic Sport TV.