The 33-year-old, a five-times Paralympic gold medallist and multiple world champion at both cycling and swimming, will show off the eye-catching design (pictured top) when he competes in the 1km time trial, 4km pursuit and team sprint at the Games, which begins on August 29.

The leg, which features a patriotic design of team colours and the names of all the people who have helped him win his 10 cycling gold medals, was officially unveiled at a special ceremony in Manchester today.

Cundy has been working on the colourful look with top designer Gary Forshaw, who works with Össur, the Icelandic company which produced the Briton's new prosthetic leg along with those for Oscar Pistorius, the South African sprinter.

He explained the thinking behind the makeover, having originally done something similar for the UCI Para-Cycling Track World Championships in Italy last year.

"Initially I painted it bright white and incorporated the world stripes around the centre [pictured below] to signify I was world champion," said Cundy.

"The leg was a big hit but the governing body [UCI] didn't approve of the design as I was racing in a few events in which I wasn't world champion.


"For London I've had a brand new leg made by Össur, and I want it to really stand out in front of the home crowds at the Paralympics.

"It's a refinement of the leg I had in Beijing with new positioning, alignment and aerodynamics – I think it looks pretty cool!"

Aside from the various gold medals and titles to his name, the English-born athlete is the fastest solo Paralympian cyclist of all time, completing the flying 200 metres in a time of 10.805sec (41.405mph/66.635 km/h).

Cundy added: "I love customising my leg – with so many restrictions on kit and other pieces of equipment it's nice to have a bit of creative freedom and stand out from the crowd."

He also revealed how part of his artwork design has been inspired by wartime bomber planes which, according to legend, carried a mark for each successful sortie: "My leg carries a medal for each successful Paralympics or World Championships."

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