PERSONAL CARE AND HEALTH - By. Leandro Paipó

Personal Care and Health

Olympic and Pralympic games London 2012 - By Sarah Green

full name: Michael Fred Phelps II

Nickname: The Baltimore Bullet, The Baltimore shark

Nationality: American

Michael Fred Phelps II (Baltimore, Maryland, June 30, 1985) is a retired American swimmer in his last event in the 2012 London Olympics. He has won a total of 22 Olympic medals in his career, more than any Olympic athlete who has achieved so far. Until August 4, 2012, Phelps broke 37 world records in swimming. It is considered the best swimmer of all time. Overall, Phelps has won 22 Olympic medals: six gold and two bronze medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics, eight golds at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and 4 gold medals and 2 silver in London 2012. On July 31, 2012 Phelps surpassed in number of medals won gymnast Larissa Latynina to, who scored a total of 18 in his career, nine of them gold.

In May 2012, announced his retirement from high performance competitions, effective at the end of their participation in the 2012 London Olympics. Their main reasons are tiredness and fatigue from years of training.

Thanks to its international titles, and their records broken, Phelps has been awarded the World Swimmer of the Year Award (award for swimmer of the year), in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009.

Full name: Natalia Partyka

Nationality: Poland

Highest ranking: 48 (May 2010)

Height: 1.73 m

Natalia Partyka (born 27 July 1989) is a Polish table tennis player. Born without a right hand and forearm, she participates in competitions for able-bodied athletes^] as well as in competitions for athletes with disabilities. Partyka reached the last 32 of the London 2012 Olympic women's table tennis.

Table tennis career

Partyka began playing table tennis at the age of seven. She won her first international table tennis medal in 1999 at the disabled World Championships. At the age of 11, she competed at the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, becoming the world's youngest ever Paralympian. In 2004, she won a gold medal in the singles event and silver in the team event at the Athens Paralympics. Also in 2004, she won two gold medals at the International Table Tennis Federation's European Championships for Cadets, which was open to able-bodied competitors. In 2006, Partyka won three gold medals at the European Paralympic Championships, one gold and two silvers at the International Paralympic Committee's Table Tennis World Championships for Disabled, and a silver in the team event at the ITTF European Junior Championship. She won two silver medals and one bronze at the 2007 edition of the latter competition. Also in 2007, Partyka won three gold medals at the European Paralympic Championships, and a bronze at the ITTF World Junior Teams Championships.^[

Olympics and Paralympics performance

Partyka competed for Poland both the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing - one of only two athletes to do so, the other being Natalie du Toit in swimming They were her third Paralympic Games, and her first Olympics. Competing in class 10 at the Beijing Paralympics, she won gold by defeating China's Fan Lei by three sets to nil.^[

In 2008, she won a gold medal in the singles event and a silver in the team event at the Beijing Paralympics - she repeated her Athens Paralympics result.

She competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. In the Olympics, she competed in women's singles table tennis On 3 September 2012 Natalia defeated China's Qiang Yang 3-2 in the Gold Medal match to become Paralympic Champion. On 8 September 2012 she won bronze in the women's Team Table Tennis Class 6-10, after defeating France 3-2.

OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC GAMES LONDON 2012 - By. Leandro Paipó

OLYMPIC GAMES LONDON 2012

The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad, and also more generally known as London 2012, was a major international multi-sport event, celebrated in the tradition of the Olympic Games, as governed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), that took place in London, United Kingdom, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. The first event, the group stages in women's football, began two days earlier, on 25 July. More than 10,000 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated.

Following a bid headed by former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe and then Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, London was selected as the host city on 6 July 2005 during the 117th IOC Session in Singapore, defeating bids from Moscow, New York City, Madrid and Paris. London was the first city to officially host the modern Olympic Games three times, having previously done so in 1908 and in 1948

Construction in preparation for the Games involved considerable redevelopment, particularly themed towards sustainability. The main focus was a new 200-hectare (490-acre) Olympic Park, constructed on a former industrial site at Stratford, East London. The Games also made use of venues which were already in place before the bid.

The Games received widespread acclaim for their organisation, with the volunteers, the British military, and public enthusiasm praised particularly highly. The opening ceremony, directed by Danny Boyle, also received near-universal acclaim. During the Games, Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, winning his 22nd medal. Great Britain achieved its highest tally of gold medals since 1908, finishing third in the medal table. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei entered female athletes for the first time, meaning every currently eligible country has sent a female competitor to at least one Olympic Games. With women's boxing included, the Games became the first at which every sport had female competitors.

Video - Opening Ceremony London 2012

Video- Opening Ceremony London 2012 - Olympic Cauldron is lit at the Olympic Stadium for the London 2012 Olympic Games

PARALYMPIC GAMES LONDON 2012

The 2012 Summer Paralympics, the fourteenth Summer Paralympic Games, and also more generally known as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, was a major international multi-sport event for the disabled governed by the International Paralympic Committee, that took place in London, United Kingdom from 29 August to 9 September. These Paralympics were the second-largest multi-sport event ever held in the United Kingdom after the 2012 Summer Olympics, and were the largest Paralympics ever: 4,294 athletes from 164 National Paralympic Committees participated. 

The games marked the return of the Paralympic movement to its spiritual birthplace: the British village of Stoke Mandeville first hosted an athletics event for disabled British veterans of the Second World War to coincide with the opening of the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. Known as the Stoke Mandeville Games, they were the first ever organised sporting event for disabled athletes, and served as a precursor to the modern Paralympic Games. Stoke Mandeville also co-hosted the 1984 Summer Paralympicswith Long Island, New York after its original host, the University of Illinois, pulled out due to financial issues.

Organisers expected the Games to be the first Paralympics to achieve mass market appeal, fuelled by continued enthusiasm from the British public following the country'ssuccessful performance at the Summer Olympics, awareness of the United Kingdom's role in the history of the Paralympics, and growing media coverage of Paralympic sport. The games ultimately met these expectations, breaking records for ticket sales, heightening the profile of the Paralympics in relation to the Olympics, and prompting IPC president Philip Craven to declare them the "greatest Paralympic Games ever."

Video - Opening Ceremony London 2012 Paralympic Games