"Paralympic sport is not just inspiring. It is hardcore. It's disappointment, it's triumph, it's hard work and it's dedication and that's really exciting."
So says South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius, standing in London's Trafalgar Square. He is one of the dozens of paralympic athletes rowing and throwing, sprinting and hitting a ball here, a year out from the Games.
He is more famous for his battle to compete in able-bodied competition and success at the World Championships in Daegu. But he plans to compete in the Paralympic 100, 200, 400 and 4x100m events and is here to extol his love of the Games. This is serious sport, with winners and losers.
It may not be "just inspiring", but it is inspiring. Inspiration being one of the Paralympic Games' values, along with courage, determination, and equality; and a large crowd has gathered in front of the National Gallery to watch athletes sprint on their blades along a short track.
"We're here to see Oscar," beam twins Emma and Bea Searle, GB and Wales university team rowing coxes from Wimbledon. "He's a real role model."
Pistorius is in London fresh from his ground-breaking appearance in Daegu and he sprints down the track with a gaggle of school children, letting them cross the line first.
"I think you won that. High five," he gestures to the victor. "Quick," he says, "let's run back as fast as we came down here".
The events taking place all day here mark the first International Paralympic Day held outside Germany and in an Olympic and Paralympic host country ahead of the Games.
Many of the 20 paralympic sports, including wheelchair basketball, tennis and table tennis, are being played in the square with passion and varying amounts of contact. The word among athletes is that the wheelchair rugby, so intense it was originally known as "murderball", is one to watch out for.
This is a warm-up for the public, just under a year out from the start of a Games which will see 4,200 paralympians compete across 20 sports.
"We're making history here today," says Tyler Saunders, a London 2012 wheelchair basketball hopeful, who wants to "urge people to relish" paralympic competition.
He says the day is also a chance to educate the next generation about his sport and the competitors - the square is full of children whose parents and teachers have brought them along to watch.
He acknowledges a slight tension around the Paralympics, that people fear saying or asking the wrong thing. This sensitivity was highlighted when International Paralympic Committee head Sir Philip Craven said he wanted to do away with the word "disabled".
"It's great to have the kids here," says Tyler. "It raises awareness and raises the profile and they say it like it is. One said, 'Where's your leg?' and I tell them."
Indeed, children are hunting athletes' autographs and trying out their equipment. "Now give that man back his wheelchair," one teacher tells an enthused pupil.