"Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision." - Muhammad Ali

It's hard to avoid I suppose.

Being at the Paralympic Games is by necessity an experience whereby you learn to classify and categorize athletes because of the physical disabilities they have. Thus swimmers, runners and basketball players become amputees, blind or paraplegic. It's almost as if we need to put an asterisk on sporting greatness.

I wonder why. Aren't these only labels and shouldn't we try to rip them off to see what really matters?

There is an eerie quiet in Beijing on the eve of competition at the 2008 Paralympic Games. Gone for the moment is the frenetic hustle and bustle of the Olympic Green. The traveling road show that saw the likes of Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt dazzle us with their amazing, almost magical talents has moved onto another town four years down the road.

But the stadiums will soon be buzzing with athletes no less marvellous and perhaps even more imbued with the will to succeed in the world of high performance sport. The Paralympians are hard at work in the swimming pools, on the waters of Shun Yi and at the track in preparation for the World's second largest multi-sport festival.

By the time you read this more than 4,000 of these athletes from 150 countries will have marched or wheeled into the Bird's Nest and will represent the largest assemblage of disabled athletes in the World's history.

The games will be well attended as Chinese officials are expecting sold out venues for athletics at the National Stadium and swimming at the Water Cube. It is acknowledged that more than a million and a half tickets have already been purchased and that those who get to see the best in disabled sport will come in greater numbers than ever before.

There it is again. A label. Disabled.

I admit to having my eyes opened wide in the past few days because of my return trip to the Olympic City. he other night I was down at "The Square" and thousands and thousands of Chinese crammed the place to have their picture taken with the giant, revolving, Paralympic billboard.

The oversized office buildings have been festooned with enormous drape-like banners depicting table tennis players and archers in wheel chairs - even missing limbs. People are stopping in the streets, they point and have their picture taken in front of these larger than life athletes. They are staring but I'm positive they are staring in wonder and I'm sure it's a good thing.

In a country that has an estimated 80 million citizens with a disability, it seems to me China is going through a prolonged awakening with regard to the Paralympic reality and it's something that will pay huge dividends not only to the local citizenry but also to the movement of disabled people world wide. The colossus of the People's Republic seems to be getting the picture - if you know what I mean.

I think I'm starting to get it too. Lost for a moment in the hangover of what had been an extraordinary Olympics, I found myself suffering from motivational issues upon my re-entry to China for these Games. So I went to find what could cure me. I went to see these athletes train and prepare for their moment in the sun.

I watched in complete amazement as Patrick Anderson and the two-time defending gold medal, men's basketball team from Canada staged one of their final workouts prior to an opening match with Germany at the National Indoor Stadium. Anderson dashed around the court, fired passes, swatted field goal attempts away and then delivered a ball on a perfect arc to tickle the twine of the suddenly full net. He was in a wheel chair - a double amputee who will never be defined by that or any other label.

Then I ventured to the Water Cube and took in one of the intense training sessions of 28-year-old Natalie du Toit of South Africa. She literally devoured the 50-meter pool as she raced back and forth, alone in her lane. This swimming star has been in China for quite some time now having competed in the Olympics and finishing 16th in the 10 km open water marathon. She will make history as the only woman to compete in both the Olympics and Paralympics in the same year. She is missing part of one leg and has been labelled as an amputee. Natalie du Toit swims beyond any arbitrary borders. Her enormous arms are matched only by her humungous drive and spectacular abilities.

Finally, I went to a flag raising ceremony in the Athlete's Village and was among the 143, red and white clad Canadians as they met their standard bearer, Donovan Tildesley. He's won four medals at previous Paralympics and has recently become a world record holder.

His words to his team-mates as he accepted the nomination to be their leader into the Bird's Nest were nothing short of inspirational. "I challenge each and every one of you to play hard, play fair and go for gold," Tildesley said. "But most of all savour the journey.'

Debbie Low, Canada's Chef de Mission for these Games, couldn't have asked for a better message from the flag bearer. "I'm proud," she smiled. "I'm proud and I'm humbled to be included in this group."

Tildesley's disability is that he is completely blind but as I watched the flag bearer beaming and being interviewed about his recently bestowed honour I was struck by the fact that no one seemed to notice or care at this particular point in time.

Donovan Tildesley is just like all the others at these Games. He is similar in most ways to Patrick Anderson and Natalie du Toit. In spite of all their differences, the disabilities each possesses cannot separate them.

These people have shed all the labels that everyone else has so meticulously designed for their benefit. They have collectively ripped them off to reveal themselves as athletes who strive for one thing and one thing only.

They want to be the very best. I've learned in a hurry that they are champions, every one, and that's the only label that sticks around here.