Top athletes to create Samsung video blogs at London 2012

“It will help the profile and awareness of the Paralympics. It’s an intimate way for us to get information to people.”

Fifty leading Paralympic athletes will offer a unique insight into their London 2012 experiences by providing video blogs through their Samsung phones.

For the first time ever in a major competition, athletes will be able to offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their life at the games.

Using their Samsung Galaxy Note phones, the 50 athletes involved – who cover 16 sports and 18 different countries – can record and upload their own blogs through a specially designed app.

The content will be uploaded to the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/paralympicsporttv, and www.paralympic.org, and then shared by the IPC, LOCOG and Samsung across all of their social channels.

Paralympic 100m T44 gold medallist April Holmes is among the athletes that will be video blogging throughout London 2012.

“It’s going to be pretty exciting, and we’ve already told our teammates we’ll be getting them doing some crazy stuff,” Holmes said.

“There are some things that athletes go through every day that people won’t see, but we can show them that now.

“This is my first video blogging experience. It’s interesting – it’s going to be fun. A lot of it is putting names with faces, and then getting a different perspective from so many different people.

“We can take our Samsung bloggers everywhere, talk to our teammates on camera, and people not inside the village can get an insight into what athletes go through on a daily basis.”

Irish sprinter Jason Smyth is also relishing the prospect of sharing his games experience with the public.

“As much as possible, I’m just going to try and make it fun and enjoyable, and have a bit of a laugh with it and see where it goes,” Smyth said.

“My roommate Michael McKillop is blogging as well so we’ll have to try and make it completely different.

“The biggest benefit is for people who never get to see inside an athlete’s village and the facilities we use.

“A lot of the time you only see the race in the game, but this will give people an opportunity to see what’s going on in the run-up to that – emotionally what you’re going through before the biggest race of your life.

“It will give the public a good perspective of what’s going on.”

USA sitting volleyball star Katie Holloway, and her teammate Kendra Lancaster, will both be providing video blogs on their exploits.

“It will be a chance to bring new people to Paralympic Sport, have a look at our blogs and see what it’s like on an international level and if they want to go there,” Holloway said.

“It’ll be a chance for our friends and family to see us outside of our competition. We have so many supporters back at home that are so wonderful, and we wish we could have them here but they can’t be.”

USA wheelchair rugby teammates Will Groulx and Jason Regier will offer an insight into preparation for their event.

“I’m a newbie to the blogging scene so it’s a new experience for me, but I’m looking forward to taking part and just getting the word out,” Groulx said.

“It will help the profile and awareness of the Paralympics. It’s an intimate way for us to get information to people.”

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April Holmes won gold at Beijing 2008.