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Education and Handover celebrations

The Handover Ceremonies in Beijing 2008 marked the official start of our Olympiad. We invited children and young people in schools and colleges across the UK to lead Paralympic Handover celebrations.

Paralympic Handover day


Paralympic Flag
The Paralympic Games Handover Ceremony in Beijing took place on 17 September 2008. It was the official start of the build up to the London 2012 Paralympic Games, when the Paralympic Flag was handed from Beijing to London.

Millions of young people in thousands of schools and colleges across the UK celebrated Paralympic Handover in lots of different ways including: inclusive sports festivals, special assemblies, environmental clean-up days, cultural activities and much more.

paralympic swimmer
Share pictures from your celebration and we'll put them on our map.

See the map we created to capture the UK's Olympic Handover celebration on Sunday 24 August.
Pierre De Coubertin

What are the Olympic and Paralympic values?

The founder of the Olympic Games, Pierre de Coubertin, was really interested in education. He wanted the Games to be a celebration of mind, body and spirit and he developed a set of values. These values can be interpreted as:

- Respect - fair play; knowing one’s own limits; and taking care of one’s health and the environment
- Excellence - how to give the best of oneself, on the field of play or in life; taking part; and progressing according to one’s own objectives
- Friendship - how, through sport, to understand each other despite any differences 

The Paralympic values are based on the history of the Paralympic Games and the tradition of fair play and honourable sports competition.

They are:
- courage;
- determination;
- inspiration; and
- equality