Olympic & Paralympic Heroes Parade

By London_Duncan Last edited 185 months ago
Olympic & Paralympic Heroes Parade
OlyCer02.jpg

In case you need reminding of our nation's recently revived sporting prowess several hundred of our sterling Olympians and Paralympians will be journeying from the Mansion House to Trafalgar Square at lunchtime on Thursday. Arranged carnival-style on a dozen floats carried on flatbed trucks they will be following our world champion rugby players and Ashes winning cricketers in what is gradually becoming a traditional rite of national recognition.

The parade is set to begin at 11am and then proceed down Great Victoria Street, Fleet Street and the Strand to begin assembling under the gaze of Nelson at 12:30 for a fifteen minute ceremony starting at roughly a quarter past one. Even though it's a school term weekday tens of thousands are still expected to throng the streets to cheer all our competitors, medal winners or not, on their way.

Fittingly, Chris Hoy and the cyclists (being honoured in the picture above) will lead off on float number one. Next it's the rowers and then the athletes, seemingly demonstrating the perceived shift in the British Olympic pecking order. Rebecca Adlington and the swimmers, including Britain's youngest Paralympic champion, 13-year-old Eleanor Simmonds, have been selected for the other prime position on the last of the twelve wagons.

It is said that some athletes are uncomfortable with what is likely to be a visibly commercial event, but with a background of financial turmoil, plenty of London 2012 kit still to pay for and a large television audience on tap the event would seem to offer almost all the bodies involved a quite literally golden opportunity that will be impossible to resist.

Local road closures begin around 10am and should last until around 3pm and further details of those and the event itself can be found here.

Picture via Martin Dougiamas's Flickr stream.

Last Updated 15 October 2008