A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been agreed between the local authority in Britain and both the IPC and the British Paralympic Association (BPA) after Buckinghamshire Council voted unanimously in support of the motion, the Bucks Herald reported.

This should allow the first Flame lighting to take place at the historical home of the Paralympic Movement early next year before Sochi 2014.

An IPC spokesman told insidethegames that "we will be making an announcement on this later this month together with the BPA and all relevant parties."

The Paralympic Flame for London 2012 was lit at Stoke Mandeville last August and is now set to become the Movement's version of Greece's Olympia – where the Olympic Flame is lit before every Games.

The Paralympic Flame being lit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in 2012




The Paralympic Movement was first conceived by pioneering neurologist Professor Sir Ludwig Guttmann at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in 1948.

As the head of the hospitals National Spinal Injury Centre, a treatment centre for injured World War Two servicemen, Sir Ludwig came up with the revolutionary idea of using sport as a key part of a rehabilitation process which was based around focusing on the positives of his patients' conditions.

In 1948 this led to a competition for 16 paralysed men and women called the International Wheelchair Games held to coincide with the Olympics which were held in London that year.

By 1960 it had expanded into the "Parallel Olympics" and in 1976 a winter event was held in Sweden to correspond with the the Summer Paralympics that year, which were held in Toronto.

The format has rapidly increased in popularity up to 2012 - where more than 4,000 athletes competed from 164 different nations - in a competition which was a marked success in Britain and created new national heroes including sprinter Jonnie Peacock, cyclist Sarah Storey and wheelchair athlete David Weir.

Four time London Paralympic gold medalist David Weir is one of the stars who has given the Paralympic movement such a profile boost in Britain since 2012


The announcement of Stoke Mandeville Hospital as the permanent lighting point for the Flame will come as a further boost to British Paralympic sport which has recently enjoyed major events held alongside able-bodied competition's at both Athletics's Sainsbury's Anniversary Games and Cycling's Prudential RideLondon Grand Prix.

Reacting to the proposed announcement Aylesbury District Council Chief David Thompson told the Bucks Herald that the news was "great" and that it "goes a long way to it being officially declared."

"It's something we have been working on very quietly and diligently," he said.

"There have been many months of hard work behind the scenes to make the dream a reality and it is now close to coming true.

"We certainly put Aylesbury and Stoke Mandeville on the map last year and we would want to reinforce that."

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November 2012: Support growing for Stoke Mandeville to be made permanent home of Paralympic Torch lighting
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August 2012: London 2012 Paralympic Flame comes to life at Stoke Mandeville Stadium