There are today 995 days until the start of the London Olympics and 1,028 until the Paralympics get under way. But could the London games become the first where disabled athletes line up against their mainstream counterparts?
It is unlikely, but research suggests there is a good case for both sets of competitors to appear together in some events.
Remember the South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius? Born without legs below the knee, he ran on carbon fibre blades and felt he could compete in the mainstream.
But his bid to run in the Beijing Olympics was rejected on the grounds that his aids gave him an unfair advantage.
Gathering evidence from experiments that measured the ground force produced by wearers of prosthetic limbs, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have calculated that there was no such advantage.
Indeed, the artificial limbs might even slow the runner - which makes Pistorius's achievements all the greater.
So what about it, London 2012?
It will mean that the Paralympics will be missing some of their star attractions but it would be a huge step forward in disability equality.
One example of someone with a disability competing in "mainstream" sport is swimmer Natalie Du Toit http://www.nataliedutoit.net/