Paralympics will be the 'biggest ever'

The Paralympic logo has been projected onto the White cliffs of Dover, to mark 100 days until the start of the Games. Credit: LOCOG, Steve Bates

It has been announced that the London 2012 Paralympic Games will be the biggest ever held.

The International Paralympic Committee says that 165 nations will be taking part - 19 more than at the Beijing Games and 16 of which have never before participated in the Paralympics.

The number of competitors will also rise from 3,951 to around 4,200.

More than a million tickets were sold for the Paralympics last September and another one million go on sale today, as the countdown to the Games reaches 100 days.

IPC president Sir Philip Craven believes this year's Paralympics will be the movement's first sell-out and will feature "new levels" of athletic performance.

He said: "It's hard to believe that the forerunner for the Paralympics took place just 64 years ago at Stoke Mandeville Hospital with 16 injured war veterans, when you consider that 4,200 elite athletes will now compete in London."

The London 2012 Paralympics run from August 29 to September 9.