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In less than twenty four hours, the Games of the XXX Olympiad will kick off! There will be 204 countries participating, 10,500 athletes, 302 events in 26 different sports, and many incredible mind-blowing surprises! There will be drama. There will be suspense. There will be heartbreakers. And there will be victories.

Nevertheless, the XXX Olympiad cannot be started without the Torchbearers.

The Olympic Torch Relay is shining a light on the whole of the United Kingdom, in which, for 70 days, they have represented the ideals of the Olympic Flame: peace, unity and friendship.

Torchbearers will carry the Flame through more than 1,000 cities, towns and villages in the UK.

Not only that, some of the torchbearers represented are deaf or hard of hearing. Some of their stories are truly inspiring. From Matthew Sykes who is a dedicated deaf sports star and is a competitive canoeist who has gone through a journey of facing challenges and barriers due to his deafness to Matty Slator from Scunthorpe who is profoundly deaf. He was presented with a special award at the Federation of Disability Sport after overcoming his impairment and being a very shy individual to become the youngest deaf referee in the Country at the age of 15. There are even more amazing stories of a woman name Susy Evans who was born profoundly deaf who is an expert 4th Dan Karate Instructor and is most likely the only deaf instructor in West/South Wales and Great Britain to Beth South, an outstanding role model is is profoundly deaf, and an attitude with, "I'm Deaf-so what?".

Check out the slideshow for some more awe-inspiring deaf/hard of hearing torchbearers from the United Kingdom and their amazing stories! (Recommend expanding the window to full screen!)