Coe predicts paralympics tickets sellout

London Olympic organizing committee chairman Sebastian Coe predicted on Thursday that all 2 million tickets for the Paralympic Games from Aug 29-Sept 9 next year will be sold.

"I do think we will, I think we have a really good chance," Coe said during an International Paralympic Day staged in Trafalgar Square to publicise the Games.

"I want to see full stadia, I want people in there who look like they want to be there. We will have a group ticket that will be available so that schools will be able to go there and it's in term time.

"We are also going to make sure that we've got the ability to showcase a lot of these sports in the leadup to that so that's why that Paralympic Day is really important."

The tickets will go on sale on Friday.

South African double amputee Oscar Pistorius, who this year became the first disabled athlete to compete at a World Athletics Championships, said it was now common to have a family member or friend with a disability.

Pistorius was awarded a silver medal after South Africa finished second in the 4x400m relay in Daegu, South Korea, after competing in the semifinals although he did not run in the final.

"A lot of perceptions are going to be changed about how people view people with disabilities and on how they view Paralympic sport," he said.

"Paralympic sport is disappointment, it's triumph, it's hard work and it's dedication and that's really exciting."

Pistorius plans to compete in the 100, 200, 400 and 4x100 at the Paralympic Games and also qualify for the Olympic 400m. He was cleared to compete against able-bodied athletes after the Court of Arbitration for Sport overruled an International Association of Athletics Federation ban.

"Before I came along in the sport there were a lot of parathletes who were really fighting for inclusion in sports," he said.

"They might not participate on an international level but they participate on a regional level and in their own countries and I think that's important, I think we should always strive for that."

The Paralympic movement began on the opening day of the 1948 London Olympics with the Stoke Mandeville Games for former servicemen and women with spinal cord injuries. They competed in wheelchair races and archery.

The first Paralympic Games for international athletes were staged in conjunction with the 1960 Rome Olympics and since the 1988 Seoul Games they have been staged in the same venue.

Reuters