Chris Holmes has one of the leading roles in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games, as Director of Paralympic Integration. He has an extraordinary sporting history himself, with 17 years on the UK Paralympic swimming squad behind him.
Chris's story
Chris Holmes is responsible for leading the planning and delivery of the Paralympics, and ensuring that it is given equal status with the Olympics at every stage of the planning process. One proof of his success as a Paralympics organiser is the unprecedented media attention focused on the 2012 Paralympics. The broadcast deal agreed with Channel 4 was the largest ever achieved for a Paralympic games, with over 150 hours more coverage than previous games.
Chris says: "The reason we chose Channel 4 was not just the level of coverage, but their commitment to bringing all the Paralympic sports and the people's stories behind them to the British public."
But what difference will the Paralympics, taking place in London, make to a child with sight loss who lives in another part of the UK?
"I have never known a time when blind sports had such a high profile. For instance, blind football has a whole new audience after the film of David Beckham playing with the Paralympic blind five a side team." This event was part of the Sainsbury's "1 million kids challenge", a project aiming to get a million children trying a Paralympic sport such as blind football.
"One exciting element of this programme is that the able bodied children are trying out disabled sports such as goalball, and that is unbelievably exciting and groundbreaking stuff. I really believe that by getting a whole generation of children trying a Paralympic sport, it must have a really positive influence on a huge chunk of society, creating a much more positive view of disability."
Chris also talks about working at schools level to communicate the Olympic and Paralympic values.
"I am touring schools at the moment, talking to children about Paralympic sports. The Paralympics is coming home to Britain for the first time since 1948 and it probably won't return in our lifetimes. I am telling young people they can get a day pass to the games for £10 to see five sports in one day. It's worth the trip to London to have this amazing experience!"
Chris was born with an undiagnosed condition causing folds in the retina of both eyes, posing the danger of tearing as the eyes developed.
At 14, his retinas suffered serious damage overnight, and he awoke to find he had almost no vision. He was extremely sporty all through his childhood, playing rugby and tennis for his school team, as well as doing judo and swimming.
"When I lost my sight, one thing that pulled me through was wanting to try to achieve something in sport. I had that support of people around me wanting to help me do the things I wanted to do." He joined a local swimming club and competed at county level. He attended a development weekend with the national disabled swimming team and ended up going to the Seoul Olympics at 16 and winning two silver medals. When he returned from Seoul, Chris made the decision to see how far he could take his swimming career. He tracked down the coach of the City of Birmingham swimming club, which trained national squad members. "I said I wanted to do the same training as the Olympic swimmers.
The coach, Rich Bailey, said: 'You can join if you are prepared to do the work.' Not many people would have taken such a far-sighted view." The club trained top level athletes, producing five Olympic and four Paralympic swimmers. Chris went to another three Olympic games after that, including Barcelona in 1992 where he gained six gold medals - an achievement as yet unmatched by any other Paralympian.
How has Chris made the transition from sport to working life?
For Chris it was not a sudden transition from sport to working life. He multi-tasks his careers, mixing full time study or work with highly demanding commitments to sport and disability. For instance, he achieved his record-breaking haul of medals at Barcelona while he was studying politics at Cambridge University, and was awarded the MBE for services to British sport aged only 20. Cambridge was followed by working as a freelance journalist, reporter and broadcaster. He then entered a high-flying career in commercial law, which he combined with a long term involvement in sport. This work included a place on the board at UK Sport, and several years as a Disability Rights Commissioner. He took part in the successful London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games bid, and was part of bringing the games to the UK.
During his swimming career, Chris did not use a "tapper" (a person on the side at the end of each lane who taps the swimmer to let them know they are reaching the end of the lane). He chose to teach himself a technique of swimming independently by counting strokes, and training to give equal weight to each arm pull in order to keep in a straight line. He still swims when he has the time, although, he admits to being more of a holiday swimmer these days: "Swimming is always more enjoyable when it's outdoors and in warm weather!"
When asked to define what the Paralympic Games mean to us today he says:
"The Paralympics are not only about creating the Paralympians of the future, but about enabling everyone to have the opportunity to try sports and believe they can do it."
"To win a gold medal is awesome, but it's nothing compared to stepping onto a track or getting into a pool for the first time and realising that you have the potential to do something you didn't think you could."
Further information
For details of Paralympic tickets from just £10, and £5 for young people, visit www.tickets.london2012.com
You can also watch footage of David Beckham playing blind football with the British Paralympic team on YouTube.