video transcript

ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION Wheelchair-bound physicist Stephen Hawking and South Africa's 'Blade Runner' Oscar Pistorius were among the luminaries on hand for the opening of the biggest Paralympics in the 11-day competition's history. Hard on the heels of the hard-act-to-follow London 2012 Olympics, the Paralympics got off to a rousing start with dancers, fireworks and near sold-out ticket sales for competitions to be held in the same Olympics park venues. Hawking, diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 21 and told in 1963 he had two years to live, led the opening ceremony.