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At 9am on Thursday, a brave new world unfolds in east London. The first competitive action of the 2012 Paralympic Games begins, with the Great Britain men's goalball team among the first athletes to compete inside the Olympic Park.
Three members of the British team wearing eye masks will take on world champions Lithuania and try to roll a ball containing bells into their opponents' net.
Who knows what will happen after that.
The stage is set: The Paralympic Games opened on Wednesday night in a glitzy ceremony
London calling: Following the success of the Olympic Games, the capital will play host to the Paralympic alternative
Star attraction: Professor Stephen Hawking played his part in the Opening Ceremony
Races and matches will be held, medals will be won and lost, records will be broken and injuries suffered. But we don't yet know how these events will be received.
Will we witness the first sold-out day in Paralympics history because patriotic punters want to paint their faces red, white and blue again and tour the venues where the Olympians performed, like a lap of honour on a day out? Or is there a genuine desire to see this country's Paralympians sustain — or even better — the phenomenal achievements of their Olympic compatriots; to watch some of the world's finest athletes attain supreme success and then look back with pride and think, 'I was there.'
Nobody really knows. There is potential excitement and exhilaration in this sense of the unknown, but it's nerve-racking, too. As the opening ceremony showed us in borrowing heavily from Shakespeare's The Tempest, this is a brave new world after all.
The choice of theme was apt. When it comes to the Paralympics, it is hard not to feel that same disorientating sensation of suddenly being thrust on to a strange island; a landscape littered with beings with which we are not familiar.
Even a multiple gold medallist such as Great Britain's equestrian star Lee Pearson, who will surpass Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson if he wins his 12th gold in London, is not a household name.
Boccia could as well be a type of Italian bread as a game of tactics and skill, similar to boules. Is sitting volleyball really a discipline that will have you shouting and screaming when points are won and lost?
There has been much talk about the Paralympics 'coming home' to the country where the first organised competitions for disabled people were held in 1948, yet the concept is still very much uncharted territory.
As the Olympics showed, however, the rules and regulations of this strange new world should not be a barrier to revelling in it. Few could confidently explain the intricacies of Charlotte Dujardin's performance in winning dressage team and individual gold, or exactly how Jade Jones fought her way to become Britain's first taekwondo gold medallist, but that did not stop us enjoying and, crucially, sharing in the experience.
By Royal appointment: The Queen, flanked by her son the Prince of Edward (above) greets Tanni-Grey Thompson; the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were also in attendance (bottom right)
Britain's judokas noted the crowd's reactions in the ExCeL Arena were much more delayed than on the Grand Prix circuit as they waited for scores to appear on the board rather than celebrating a successful ippon as it happened. But none of that seemed to matter. It was still sport — glorious and emotional, with winners and losers, triumph and disaster.
But will this brave new world of the Paralympics be a sporting one, too? That's the Utopia, but the potential reality carries a nagging, underlying uncertainty about the next 11 days: we really don't know what to expect.
Wednesday night's opening ceremony was about challenging perception, not celebrating the British platform on which the best athletes on the globe had their opportunity to be the very best they could be.
Interest: More than 2.4 million tickets for the Paralympic Games have already been sold, including half a million to overseas visitors
Interest: More than 2.4 million tickets for the Paralympic Games have already been sold, including half a million to overseas visitors
Is the Paralympic movement, then, about increasing awareness around disability or is it actually about 'hardcore sport', to borrow a phrase from Oscar Pistorius? Can it ever be both?
Sometimes it doesn't seem as if it is particularly sure; it's just happy to be here and to enjoy its moment in the spotlight. Yet, sport has to be at the heart of this Paralympics if it is to be a genuine success — with a genuine legacy.
When Britain's world record-holder Jonnie Peacock takes on world champion Jerome Singleton and defending Paralympic champion Pistorius in the final of the men's T44 100metres on Monday night, we must look past the prosthetic legs and see the sporting spectacle: three men aiming to be the quickest in their field, a Paralympic gold medallist.
Flying the flag: All eyes will be on London for the Paralympic Games which runs over the next fortnight
Flying the flag: All eyes will be on London for the Paralympic Games which runs over the next fortnight
We have to see the competitors as athletes, not just inspirational role models or uplifting individuals who have overcome extraordinary obstacles, but athletes; sportsmen and women gunning for gold medals.
They want to be discussed not in terms of the limbs they have lost or never had, but the hundredths of seconds they shaved off their personal bests, the points they scored and the metres they gained.
If we don't talk about them in those terms then it's just one big show: very nice for a week and a half but offering little to tell the grandchildren. We will start to become hardened to the stories of bomb raids, car crashes and genetic conditions, which would be the biggest disappointment of all. The Paralympics will never have a better opportunity to break through the glass ceiling in this country, just like actress Nicola Miles-Wildin, playing Miranda, did physically inside the Olympic Stadium.
Pack your umbrella: Although the wet weather eased for the opening ceremony
Stat's interesting: 18,000 LED lights were included in the performers' hat brims, while 23 sway poles featured in the opening ceremony
The British team is backed by almost 50million of funding and will perform in front of packed crowds and a free-to-air TV audience, offering nearly 500 hours of action on Channel 4. This is the Paralympics' opportunity to show its brave new world is an exciting sporting place to be.
So will the apples we were all encouraged to bite into on Wednesday night symbolise Sir Isaac Newton's moment of inspiration or the poisoned fruit eaten by Snow White?
Nobody knows. But let's hope the closing ceremony on September 9 heralds not a fairytale ending, but a new beginning for Paralympic sport.
GAME ZONE:
Holmes honoured
Nine -time Paralympic gold medallist Chris Holmes will be inducted into the Visa Paralympic Hall of Fame. Holmes, who lost his sight as a teenager, competed at four Games and was made an MBE for his services to sport. He is the director of Paralympic integration at LOCOG.
Class Distinction
British swimmer Ellie Simmonds will avoid her main rival for the S6 100m and 400m freestyle after American Victoria Arlen was reclassified. Arlen, 17, returned to swimming last year after a neurological virus left her in a vegetative stage for two years.
Playing hardball
Simon Munn wants the wheelchair basketball to be the fiercest test he has experienced in six Paralympics. 'If it's not worth winning then why go out there? It's got to mean something, it's got to be tough,' he said.
Dancing Queen
British dressage rider Sophie Wells is taking inspiration from the GB Olympic gold medal team. 'We realised how captivating dancing horses could be this summer and our para-dressage riders should remind us all over again,' she said. 'The able-bodied team did really well, and that inspires us.'
Peacock: I'm loving it
Jonnie Peacock is enjoying his first Games. The 19-year-old British sprinter, who will race Oscar Pistorius in the T44 100m, tweeted a picture of the 'pretty big' food hall at the athletes' village and wrote: 'Look what will be waiting for me after the final! ;)' Needless to say, it's a McDonald's.
BY LAURIE WHITWELL
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