BEIJING, Sept 5: Less than two weeks after the Olympic flame was extinguished at the Bird’s Nest, Beijing will be back on Games-time footing from Saturday for the largest ever gathering of disabled athletes at the 13th Paralympics.

China promised to stage the event under the principle of “Two Games, equal splendour” and the same stunning venues will be used for 11 days of competition involving more than 4,000 athletes from nearly 150 countries in 20 sports.

Beijing’s anti-pollution measures have remained in place, the security around the Chinese capital is just as tight and, as far as the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is concerned, the local organisers have been equally well prepared.

“We’ll have the most number of athletes, the most number of sports, the most number of countries ever. It’ll be the biggest ever,” IPC President Philip Craven told Reuters in an interview.

“This is a dangerous thing to say but I’ve never felt so relaxed before a Games.”

The run-up to the Olympics was blighted by controversy over Tibet and human rights issues and the International Olympic Committee was frequently called on by rights groups to justify its selection of Beijing as host city.

As the vision of the Paralympic movement is not just to provide a showcase for “the pinnacle of elite performance”, bringing it to the world’s most populous country was always going to be “incredibly positive”, Craven said.

“Part of our vision is the transformation of society and perceptions and if you think there are 83 million people in China with a perceived disability...that is quite a grouping to be liberating,” he said.

“That’s the portion of the population that we’re targeting and no other.”

Life for the physically challenged is not perfect in China. “China is still a developing country,” said Zhang Qiuping, head of the Paralympics at the Beijing organising committee (BOCOG).

“Although the barrier-free facilities in Beijing have been greatly improved for the Paralympics, currently we are not able to make it barrier-free everywhere.”

Craven said major improvements had been made in Beijing, including “symbolic accessibility changes” at the Great Wall and Forbidden City.

“What the Paralympic Games does is it gives this impetus, you’ve got six and a half years to make a change, which has happened here, you can see it,” he said.

“Then you’ve got the Games, which is an incredible vehicle to accelerate that change and change perceptions and then after the Games, that’s when you really make progress.”

Some 30,000 volunteers will serve the Sept. 6-17 Games, while 100,000 police will remain on alert around the city to counter the terrorist threat that China has always said was the biggest threat to the successful hosting of the two sporting events. “We will not lower any of the security standards put in place for the Olympics but we do promise a people-oriented service,” venue security chief Cao Dongxiang told a news conference.

“Our guiding principle will be to respect the independence and privacy of all disabled people.”

Beijing might also host the best attended Paralympics ever.

Organisers said that 72 percent of the 1.65 million tickets have been snapped up, even if 330,000 of those were handed out free to students and the disabled.

China topped the medals table at the last Games in Athens four years ago and are likely to dominate even more than they did at the Olympics with their biggest ever delegation of 547 athletes and officials.

Amputee swimmer Natalie Du Toit and “Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius, both South Africans, will receive a lot of attention despite the rival attractions of goalball, wheelchair rugby and sitting volleyball.

Du Toit and Polish table tennis player Natalia Partyka are the only two athletes to appear at both Games this year, while Pistorius’s ultimately doomed attempt to qualify for Olympics on his prosthetics made headlines around the world.—Reuters