800 athletes to take part in Our Greatest Team Parade

The Mayor of London, the British Olympic Association (BOA) and the British Paralympic Association (BPA) have released more details of the Our Greatest Team Parade, which will take place on Monday, September 10 – 800 athletes will travel on 21 floats from Mansion House in the City along Queen Victoria Street and Cannon Street, past St Paul’s Cathedral, and then by Fleet Street and the Strand to Trafalgar Square.

A big screen at the base of Nelson’s Column will give spectators a chance to see all the athletes before they head into The Mall through Admiralty Arch to the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace, where there will be an event hosted by the Prime Minster, David Cameron.

The crowd in the ticketed area along The Mall will include 14,000 volunteers, members of the blue light services, military personnel, Team GB and ParalympicsGB coaches and support staff, plus friends and family of the athletes involved, as well as schoolchildren from all 33 London boroughs.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, said: “In the ancient world, crowds would line the streets to welcome their triumphant Olympians home, where they would be ecstatically venerated and their victories chronicled for the ages, with names like Leonidas of Rhodes and Milo of Kroton reverberating through history.

“But no sporting heroes will have been more lauded, no achievements more celebrated, and no nation more passionately proud than at the Our Greatest Team Parade, which will sweep through central London in a glorious miasma of colour, noise and excitement.

“This is a chance to celebrate the heroes and heroines who have thrilled us with their skills, sportsmanship, and grace during London’s spectacular Olympic and Paralympic Games, and whose names and triumphs will live on for centuries to come.”

Picture: Crown Copyright