Pralympic Fact - Did you know....

London 2012 will be the most compact Games ever. Around half of the 20 sports will be held in the Olympic Park and the majority of the remainder in the River Zone. These two zones are just 15 minutes apart.

The River Zone features five venues in the Thames Gateway area which straddle the River Thames. They are: North Greenwich Arena 1, Greenwich Park, North Greenwich Arena 2, ExCeL and the Royal Artillery Barracks.

Events held outside these two zones include Paralympic Rowing (which is being held at Eton Dorney, 25 miles west of London), Paralympic Sailing which is at Weymouth and Portland and Paralympic Road Cycling which will be held in central London.

London 2012 will be the most accessible Games ever for athletes and spectators. Train platforms have been widened, buses will be low-floored and are wheelchair accessible and all river piers have ramps.

More than 8,250 London buses have been fitted with the new iBus system an automatic radio and on bus passenger display announcement system which helps the visually and hearing impaired and those unfamiliar with London.

Paralympic Athlete Highlight

Ben Quilter (Great Britain)

Sport: Judo

Paralympian Ben Quilter boasts an impressive Judo career – a sport he started as a seven year old. Undeterred when he began to lose his sight at 10 years of age, because of the degenerative condition Stargardt's Disease, he continued within the sport he loves.

Ben missed out on selection for the Athens Games but was selected for the 2008 Beijing Games, where he finished fifth.

He has continued to progress and won the world title in 2010 and added the 2011 European title to his tally.

Ben Quilter comes to the London Paralympic Games 2012 as the world number one and World and European champion in his -60kg category.

Paralympic Athlete Highlight

Jon-Allan Butterworth (Great Britain)

 Sport: Cycling

Jon-Allan Butterworth joined the RAF in 2002 and served in Afghanistan in 2005 and Iraq in 2007 as a SAC(T) Weapons technician. During this tour of Iraq, he was involved in a rocket attack and was operated on by doctors in a battlefield hospital who carried out an above the elbow amputation of his left arm.

During 2008 he became involved with the Help for Heroes Big Battlefield Bike Ride, a 350 mile cycling challenge around the battlefields of Northern France to help raise funds to benefit other injured servicemen and women.

Following  this experience and watching British cyclists in the Beijing Olympic Games 2008 Jon-Allan attended a British Cycling Development Programme and was accepted onto the British Paracycling Programme in January 2009.

Aged 26-year-old from Sutton Coldfield,Jon-Allan made his international debut at the 2011 World Championships in Italy, winning gold in a world record time in the kilo event in his C5 category.

He retained his title at this year's World Championship in Los Angeles, again setting a world record.

At London Paralympic Games 2012, Jon-Allan will see his kilo event being factored. This means he will be going head-to-head for a Gold medal against his fellow GB team-mate Jody Cundy who will be competing in the C4 category. Only one of them can take the Gold medal - determined by which rider is closest to the world record for their class.