The Para-Olympic Heritage Flame Lighting Ceremony.

On Saturday (1/3/14) we witnessed a bit of Olympic history with the inaugural lighting of the para-Olympic heritage flame at the Stoke Manderville hospital in the UK where the para-Olympic games were born. Obviously this new idea is intended to both boost the profile of the para-Olympics games and strengthen the links between the UK and future para-Olympic hosts in the same way that Greece is synonymous with the Olympics.

The short eight minute ceremony included lots of references to the 2012 para-Olympic ceremonies in a clear effort to drag out the memory of the 2012 Summer games for as long as possible. It began with British wheelchair racer Hannah Cockcroft holding the flame inside a giant, golden Hephaestic sphere. Officially this was a reference to Hephaestus the Greek god of blacksmiths and craftsmen who according to certain versions of the legend was thrown out of Olympus for having a crippled foot before being the only god to return to Olympus. That obviously makes Hephaestus the original para-Olympic champion and it's claimed that the para-Olympics "Agitos" logo is based on a Hephaestic sphere.

In reality though the spectacle of someone at the centre of a Hephaestic sphere looks like the nucleus at the centre of an atom. This is pretty much universally accepted as a symbol of the concept science so was intended as a reference to the science heavy 2012 para-Olympic opening ceremony that featured Professor Hawking as narrator. Hannah Cockcroft is quite a pretty young woman with big breasts that jiggle about as she races in her wheelchair. In fact I think that following the 2012 games Cockcroft became one of the first disabled people to feature in one of those men's magazines countdown of the 100 sexiest women of the year. As such her inclusion was a reference to disabled people and sexuality that was such a theme of the 2012 opening ceremony. With gay-rights obviously being such a big theme at the 2014 Winter Games in Russia the combination of science and sexuality was a sign that the scientific basis for homosexuality is one of the big issues that is really going to get hammered out during the para-Olympics.

Also the place most people will recognise a Hephaestic sphere from is the fair ground where they are used to spin people around really fast in order for them to experience high g-forces. The "G" in g-force of course stands for Gravity. As such the UK was trying to tease the Russians by reminding them how many Oscar nominations for British made special/visual effects the film "Gravity" had received and later went on to win.

Cockcroft passed the flame onto Caz Walton who is a member of the para-Olympic association and a former para-Olympian herself. In turn Walton handed the flame to Andy Barlow who is a young British prospect for the 2018 games. With this symbolising of old and new over the ceremony moved on to a virtual handing over of the flame to - I think - 8 torch bearers in Russia who will tour the country before converging on Sochi for the lighting of the flame during Friday's (7/3/14) opening ceremony.

This virtual handover involved a live satellite link up with Russia. This provided an opportunity for discussion about the type of coverage the often forgotten about para-Olympics will receive across the world. The hand over began with a Russian made computer animation which seemed to resemble a computer screen-saver. This served to highlight that people who want to watch the para-Olympics in nations where it's not really covered on TV can livestream it on their computers. That of course leads into a wider discussion about computer hacking and Internet security. It also gave the Russians the opportunity to point out that they're hardly far behind the UK in special/visual effects and raise the question of why the visual effects heavy 2013 film "Stalingrad" was not nominated for an Oscar.

Contributing their part to the coverage/access debate the UK's Channel 4 who were broadcasting the ceremony live and will be broadcasting parts of the para-Olympics in the UK opted not to show the Russian video. Instead they cut away first to their presenters and then to a British made video about British para-Olympians. This could have been taken straight from the BBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics that seemed to focus heavily on events featuring British competitors regardless of how little chance those competitors stood or the fact that there were often more important things going on. The women's Ice Hockey final being a case in point.

With that the ceremony ended amid lots of smoky fireworks. Along with the golden colour scheme this was a direct reference to the 2012 para-Olympic closing ceremony which featured lots of fire and lots of smoke. As such it seems the UK is keen for Rihanna or specifically my relationship with Rihanna to join the scientific basis for homosexuality as one of the small number of issues that really get hammered out during the para-Olympics. Rihanna's preparation work for this has not been good with today's Stella McCartney's show at Paris Fashion Week definitely being a mistake.

21:20 on 3/3/14 (UK date).