The Art of Steel
Celebrating its fourteenth anniversary, the Paralympic Games 2012 began on August 29th and will run until September 9th. After the huge success of the London 2012 Olympics and the growing media interest in Paralympic sports, the event is expected to be massively successful. Indeed, demand for tickets this year has been unusually high, outstripping all previous records. Three medals have already been won in the shooting event, with the gold going to Cuiping Zhang of The Peoples Republic of China.
The return of the Paralympic games to London is especially poignant, being something of a homecoming. In 1948, as the Olympic Games opening ceremony took place in London, the Paralympic games was born. At Stoke Mandeville hospital, pioneering neurologist Dr Ludwig Guttmann organised a sports competition for disable World War Two veterans. The event was incredibly successful and Dr Guttmann was inspired to make it a regular event to coincide with the Olympic Games. Sixty-four years after this precursor to the modern Paralympic Games and thirty-one years after Dr Guttmann’s death, the games continue to grow in popularity.
Not only inspiring athletes, the Paralympic Games have also inspired an artist to create a unique, beautiful sculpture. Highly polished and eye-catching, Phillips Thompson’s piece Beyond the Finishing Line is a series of distorted concentric circles. Thompson says he was inspired by ‘dropping a small pebble in still water, the ripples of ever-widening rings vibrating out. The Paralympic Games was that small pebble. An increasing number of athletes compete for the ultimate prize. Through their energy, motivation and inspiration, the movement will keep expanding.’
Once again, its attractiveness, solidity, workability and resistance to corrosion made stainless steel the ideal choice of material. The sculpture is a truly magnificent piece of art and highlights the versatility of this incredible metal. BS Stainless continue to provide the best quality stainless steel blanks, welding wire, sheeting and banding to our customers. Although our materials are primarily used for construction work, stainless steel is a truly remarkable metal and has unlimited applications, as shown by Phillip Thompson’s sculpture.
We wish all of the Paralympians good luck in London this year and hope for some British gold metals, as opposed to ones made from stainless steel!