The Paralympics on Twitter

From today until the 9th September, London will take centre stage once again as the UK hosts the 2012 Paralympic Games.

With over 150 million Tweets about the Olympics, Twitter brought fans closer than ever before to the Games. As we head into the Paralympics, Twitter will once again be the place to get closer to the extraordinary stories of the athletes.

Here’s our guide to watching the action on Twitter:

#follow the athletes
Here are five of our favourite @ParalympicsGB athletes on Twitter:

• Jonnie Peacock (@JonniePeacock) British T44 100m World Record holder
• Ellie Simmonds (@EllieSimmonds1) British Swimmer
• David Weir MBE (@davidweir2012) British wheelchair athlete
• Jon-Allan Butterworth (@J_Butterworth86) British cyclist
• Clare Strange (@ClareStrange) British wheelchair basketball athlete

You can also check out this list for more ideas of who to follow.

#follow the presenters
Presenters on Channel 4 will include some new and familiar faces, including:

• Jon Snow (@jonsnowC4) at the opening and closing ceremonies
• Clare Balding (@ClareBalding)
• Jonathan Edwards (@JDE66)
• Ade Adepitan (@AdeAdepitan)
• Daraine Mulvihill (@Darainemul)
• Arthur Williams (@Arthurvw1986)
• Rachel Latham (@rachlatham)

You can find a list of all the presenters here.

If you’re tuning in to watch the Paralympics on Channel 4 (@C4Paralympics), look out for their daily Twitter hashtag polls.

#join the conversation

• #Paralympic and #AllAboutAbility are the two main hashtags so if you’re talking about the Games on Twitter, you can use these to connect with people who share your interest
• #ProudParalympian will be used by athletes to see their Tweets on a specially created Twitter Wall in the athlete’s village, so it’s worth keeping an eye on it throughout the Games

#follow the games

• @Paralympic is the official Twitter account for the International Paralympic Committee, providing insight throughout the events
• @ParalympicsGB is the official account for the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Paralympic Team
• @C4Paralympics is Channel 4’s official feed

#opening ceremony
During tonight’s Opening Ceremony 10 nations, including Team GB (@ParalympicsGB) and the USA (@USParalympics), will have a representative filming the ceremony from their viewpoint. This video will then be uploaded to @Paralympic before the ceremony is over so you can get a bird’s eye view of the Games.

To add to the excitement, throughout the Paralympics, 50 athletes from countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Spain and the USA, will use a Samsung camera to record a daily video blog, which will also be shared on the @Paralympic page.