:00:00. > :00:33.Hello, and welcome to a special edition of Witness. I'm here at
:00:34. > :00:38.Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the venue of the 2012 Olympics, to bring
:00:39. > :00:42.you five inspiring stories from the history of the Olympic and
:00:43. > :00:46.Paralympic games. We will have moments of triumph and defeat, pride
:00:47. > :00:51.and agony. All told by the athletes themselves. Witness will travel to
:00:52. > :00:56.Kenya to meet a multiple world-record holder. We are in East
:00:57. > :01:00.Timor to meet the refugee who became an Olympian. And we will hear from
:01:01. > :01:06.the archer who want Britain's first-ever Paralympic medal. But we
:01:07. > :01:11.start with one of the most famous performances in Olympic history. 40
:01:12. > :01:14.years ago, Nadia Comaneci from Romania became the first units to
:01:15. > :01:18.score a perfect ten. She told Witness how she did it. -- first
:01:19. > :01:28.Olympian. I was 14 when I went to the Olympics
:01:29. > :01:32.in 1976 in Montreal. I was asked by a journalist Hadaway think I will
:01:33. > :01:42.do, and I answered, I hope I will get a medal and if possible, bold --
:01:43. > :01:45.how do I think. The routine I did on the first date was compulsory, and
:01:46. > :01:52.that is a routine everybody does. But I think the way I did it was a
:01:53. > :02:02.little bit of me then in the book. I wanted to do something people did
:02:03. > :02:15.not do before. I could hear just like, oh, well. -- wow. Faultless!
:02:16. > :02:22.Absolutely faultless! I thought I did pretty good. What do the judges
:02:23. > :02:28.say about that? There is the smile. I was hoping to get a 9.9 or
:02:29. > :02:32.something around that score. I got to see the scoreboard turning
:02:33. > :02:38.around, which showed my competition number, 07 very, and the score was
:02:39. > :02:44.1.0 zero. I thought maybe it would go up to nine. And one of my
:02:45. > :02:48.teammates made a sign to me and said I think it is something wrong with
:02:49. > :02:56.the scoreboard, but this is a ten. That is perfection! I had no idea
:02:57. > :03:01.that this is the first time in the history of the Olympics, I just knew
:03:02. > :03:07.it was the highest score you can get. I was really happy. Being in
:03:08. > :03:14.school and getting a tan and mouth! -- ten in maths! The reason I
:03:15. > :03:18.started to Gnostics is because I used to flip and do things in the
:03:19. > :03:21.house on the furniture that I was not allowed to, and a brick a couple
:03:22. > :03:27.of pieces of furniture -- gymnastics. My mum found out from
:03:28. > :03:32.friends there is a gymnastics place where kids can go. We used to do two
:03:33. > :03:37.training sessions a day, probably five or six others. I liked the
:03:38. > :03:42.challenge myself. If my coach came to me and said, I bet you can't to
:03:43. > :03:49.five of those, I would do eight. I felt free. I felt being in the air
:03:50. > :03:53.and able to turn flips, it was really cool. Now a real hush comes
:03:54. > :03:58.over the audience. One of anticipation. After my first perfect
:03:59. > :04:09.ten, I went to compete on the balance beam. Absolutely superb. I
:04:10. > :04:12.was thinking the competition is not over, think about being, think about
:04:13. > :04:22.before, think about what you have to do next. -- think about beam, think
:04:23. > :04:27.about floor. Have you seen anyone more confident on a four inch beam?
:04:28. > :04:34.Winning the Olympic Games in 1976, I managed to score seven perfect tens.
:04:35. > :04:39.When I stood on the podium and received all of the medals, I was
:04:40. > :04:46.thinking about home. I was hoping my mother and my family were able to
:04:47. > :04:51.watch me. My mum told me that she always was watching the replay. She
:04:52. > :04:58.was too scared to watch the live competition. When I see myself at
:04:59. > :05:05.14, now I get more emotional. As the years go by, I think my historic
:05:06. > :05:14.performance is getting to me much more valuable. And I understand what
:05:15. > :05:18.a big deal that was. Nadia Comaneci, who now lives in America and runs a
:05:19. > :05:22.gymnastics school. Some athletes train from an early age for a Libbi
:05:23. > :05:27.Gorr medals, and for others it is an achievement just to get to the
:05:28. > :05:31.games. Take a Agueda Amaral from East Timor, she became a refugee
:05:32. > :05:38.during unrest in her country. But a year later, she got an invitation to
:05:39. > :06:22.take part in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
:06:23. > :06:31.The individual Olympic flags, now coming from East Timor, a country
:06:32. > :08:17.with no government, and the United Nations control.
:08:18. > :08:25.A little celebration. Goes down onto her knees. She has a lot to go. She
:08:26. > :08:27.thinks she is finished, and the judges as saying, sorry about that,
:08:28. > :08:39.you have to go again. What a response. Absolutely
:08:40. > :09:29.wonderful. This is what the Olympic Games are all about.
:09:30. > :09:36.Agueda Amaral, taking Witness for a run in East Timor. This year, there
:09:37. > :09:41.will be a whole team of refugees following in her footsteps and
:09:42. > :09:44.running and to the Olympic flag. Nowadays, the Paralympics is a huge
:09:45. > :09:48.part of the sporting calendar, that things were very different first
:09:49. > :09:53.time the event was held in Rome in 1960. We have been finding out more
:09:54. > :10:00.from one of Britain's first Paralympic -- Paralympic ins.
:10:01. > :10:09.In 1959, I was working in Malawi, involved in a car accident, when I
:10:10. > :10:13.became paralysed and was brought to Stoke Mandeville Hospital in
:10:14. > :10:20.England, and from then, my life changed dramatically. The director
:10:21. > :10:28.of the union was Ludwig Goodman, and his idea was movement. People just
:10:29. > :10:35.not allowed to live there, becoming ill and miserable -- lie there.
:10:36. > :10:39.Paralysis keeps the 200 contestants in wheelchairs, but it can't prevent
:10:40. > :10:43.them from being sportsmen. They just wait down I happen to be quite good
:10:44. > :10:51.at archery, and I used to wind the monthly competition quite often. In
:10:52. > :10:55.1960, I was lucky and surprised to be invited to be in the team to go
:10:56. > :10:58.to the very first international sports event for wheelchair people
:10:59. > :11:09.in Rome. To the Vatican where 350 paralysed
:11:10. > :11:17.people completed in what they have called the Paralympic Games.
:11:18. > :11:20.The Olympics had just taken place and we were going to stay in the
:11:21. > :11:27.early big village in the same accommodation. To our horror, when
:11:28. > :11:33.we arrived on the ground, all the buildings were up on stilts.
:11:34. > :11:38.Whenever we went in or out of a building these two soldiers would
:11:39. > :11:48.carry us up two flights of stairs and down two flights of stairs. It
:11:49. > :11:53.was a very tedious business. During the whole of the Games there was
:11:54. > :12:09.such a togetherness. Everybody making new friends, it was great,
:12:10. > :12:13.and we just supported each other. Artery was one of the first to
:12:14. > :12:20.begin. We would shoot six arrows each. -- archery. And then a little
:12:21. > :12:24.army of people, one for each target, would rush up to the target and
:12:25. > :12:29.collect the arrows and the same thing happened again. I have no idea
:12:30. > :12:40.what my score was. And then I was allowed to go off and watch other
:12:41. > :12:45.people doing different events. Then we were ready to go back to the
:12:46. > :12:50.village. Some people said, where is Margaret? She is needed for a medal
:12:51. > :12:54.ceremony! So they then had to lift me out of the coach, put me back
:12:55. > :13:03.into a wheelchair and I was wheeled up a little brown onto the leading
:13:04. > :13:09.position and presented with a gold medal. I wasn't really very excited
:13:10. > :13:15.about it. It had just happened everything was so who will bring. --
:13:16. > :13:23.bewildering. It was the first medal won by a British person at the first
:13:24. > :13:31.Paralympic Games. I myself managed to take part in five Paralympics
:13:32. > :13:36.over the years. It was just a marvellous experience, the whole
:13:37. > :13:41.thing. Pioneering Paralympians Margaret Maughan, with a very
:13:42. > :13:45.special memory of the London Games. Remember, you can watch Witness
:13:46. > :13:50.every month on the BBC News Channel, or you can catch up on over 1000
:13:51. > :13:58.radio programmes now -- in our online archive. Just go to the BBC
:13:59. > :14:01.website. Now to Kenya and the remarkable story of a blind
:14:02. > :14:06.Paralympians who fought back from depression to set records in every
:14:07. > :18:01.event in distance running. We went to Kenya to meet him.
:18:02. > :18:08.Henry Wanyoike there. Look out for him in this year's Paralympics,
:18:09. > :18:12.where he will be competing in a marathon. Now for the final film. We
:18:13. > :18:17.go back to the Barcelona Olympics and a story that has inspired many
:18:18. > :18:21.around the world. Derek Redmond was made famous for reasons he would
:18:22. > :18:27.rather forget. I am remembered for two things. One, for being a part of
:18:28. > :18:32.the winning relay team that defeated the Americans in the 1991 World
:18:33. > :18:35.Championships. But the most famous thing that I am known for is
:18:36. > :18:40.actually not finishing the race, and it is for the race in Barcelona.
:18:41. > :18:44.Unfortunately I had had a few injury problems, mainly with the Achilles
:18:45. > :18:49.tendon, and that hampered me through my career. But by the time I was in
:18:50. > :18:53.Barcelona I felt great. There were no issues, no problems. Derek
:18:54. > :18:57.Redmond, in the best form he has shown since he broke the British
:18:58. > :19:05.record, way back in 87. I never thinking, I'm going to win this
:19:06. > :19:10.race. The gun goes... And I had a really good start. Redmond has got
:19:11. > :19:15.off very fast. I am flowing along, things are great and then I hear a
:19:16. > :19:19.funny pop and two or three strides later is what I felt it and I felt
:19:20. > :19:26.the rip of the hamstring. Redmond has broken down! He is on the track,
:19:27. > :19:30.nearly down and Derek Redmond, the jinx has struck again. I remember
:19:31. > :19:37.having a hand on the back of the leg and collapsing onto the floor in
:19:38. > :19:43.pain. Then I remembered where I was and it was just like you're in the
:19:44. > :19:52.Olympics semi-final and that's pretty much what made me get up and
:19:53. > :19:56.start to run, or hobble, and I just bought, you know what, I am going to
:19:57. > :20:00.finish this race. It might be the last three state ever run of us I
:20:01. > :20:05.will finish it for me. I was just about to get into the home straight
:20:06. > :20:11.when I could sense this person on my left-hand side and then I heard a
:20:12. > :20:18.very familiar voice shout out, it's me, and instantly I knew who it was.
:20:19. > :20:23.It was my dad. Up until then I have managed to keep all of my emotions
:20:24. > :20:29.in and hold it together relatively well, but as soon as I saw him that
:20:30. > :20:35.was it, I lost it. I was in tears. I said, I can't believe it. Why is
:20:36. > :20:38.this happening? With his track record of injuries and maybe his
:20:39. > :20:42.only Olympic appearance, he just can't hold it. He had always been
:20:43. > :20:45.there with me and he spent many years standing on the sidelines in
:20:46. > :20:50.the middle of winter, with a copy in his hands, trying to keep warm. And
:20:51. > :20:55.all he was saying was, you are champion, you have nothing to prove.
:20:56. > :21:00.Don't worry. I just said to him, get me back into lane five, I want to
:21:01. > :21:03.finish! And the joke that I always make about that is it is the first
:21:04. > :21:07.and only time I have ever been able to shout at my dad and get away with
:21:08. > :21:12.it. Any other time, I would have got a quick smack around the ear and he
:21:13. > :21:16.would have said, less of your cheek! We still had officials trying to
:21:17. > :21:20.stop us. And they were not quite sure what to do. They said, who is
:21:21. > :21:24.this crazy man who has walked onto the track. What's going on? And
:21:25. > :21:28.right up until the point where I got over the line and walked through the
:21:29. > :21:33.line I'd had no idea what reaction it was having on the crowd. I looked
:21:34. > :21:40.around and people were going mad. People on their feet. Some of the
:21:41. > :21:45.messages and letters and stuff that I get from people, saying, you have
:21:46. > :21:48.no idea who I am, I am not in sport, I've been through some hard times, I
:21:49. > :21:53.just want to thank you for your inspiration. It is quite strange
:21:54. > :22:01.that people to this day still find it inspiring. It is a nice feeling,
:22:02. > :22:05.but I've done some into help so many people in their own ways. There was
:22:06. > :22:09.an outside chance that I would have to battle for gold. Does it make up
:22:10. > :22:13.for that? I have to be honest and say no. British Olympian Derek
:22:14. > :22:19.Redmond bringing an end to this special edition of Witness, from
:22:20. > :22:24.London. Next month we will have another round-up of history, as told
:22:25. > :22:26.by the people who were there. For now, from me and the rest of the
:22:27. > :22:45.team, goodbye.