The London 2012 Paralympics, which took place in August and September this year, was seen as a major success, with millions attending the Games and watching on television as the likes of South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius (pictured top) and British swimmer Ellie Simmonds created international headlines.

But it has now proved a major online success after it held off all-comers to become the most trending United Kingdom sports event on Twitter.

The feat appears even more impressive for the Paralympics given that #Olympics was ranked fourth and football took up seven of the top ten spots.

In second place was #LFC (Liverpool), while in third was #MUFC (Manchester United).


"Our aim was to make the London 2012 Paralympics a truly digital Games and I think this is reflected with #Paralympics topping the most trending UK sport event table," said the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) director of communication Craig Spence.

"From the word go our athletes were encouraged to embrace social media throughout the Games, tweeting and Samsung Video Blogging from behind the scenes.

"We provided more behind the scenes access during London 2012 than any other global sporting event previously.

"This success is a real team effort with the IPC, London 2012, BPA, Channel 4, BBC Radio 5 Live, media, athletes and most importantly British tweeters all playing a significant part."

During London 2012, the IPC's official Twitter account @paralympic grew by over 1,000 per cent and a number of leading athletes also enjoyed similar growth in the number of their followers.

Around 50 athletes also took part in the Samsung Bloggers project which saw them record and post video blogs from behind the scenes before, during and after the London 2012 Games giving fans unprecedented access.

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