However, it is highly unlikely that Adepitan will get much chance to rest over the next two years as he has now been revealed as the face of Channel 4’s coverage for the London 2012 Paralympics meaning that he will be a permanent feature on the station from now, right through to the completion of the Games.

It was no doubt an astute move from Channel 4 to recruit likeable Londoner because with his trademark dreadlocks, infectious laugh and winning smile, he is without a doubt one of the most recognisable and popular Paralympians in Great Britain. He has also accomplished an awful lot in a relatively short space of time.

Having been in a wheelchair from the age of three after contracting polio, which resulted in the loss of use in his left leg, Adepitan developed enormous upper body strength from an early age which made him stand out as a promising young athlete. It was this physical power that would later help him fight his way into the Great Britain wheelchair basketball team before eventually displaying his immense leadership qualities as captain.

With Adepitan spearheading the team, Great Britain claimed a Paralympic bronze medal at the Athens 2004 Games (pictured) as well as gold at the BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester in 2005.

Not long after the duel medal successes, Adepitan retired from the sport, later becoming a wheelchair tennis player, but not before reinventing himself as a popular television presenter that starred in hit BBC shows such as Dancing on Wheels, Desperados, Sportsround, Xchange and Holiday to name but a few.

Adepitan is a patron of WheelPower, the national disability charity based at Stoke Mandeville and Go Kids Go! which teaches young wheelchair-users to be independently mobile.

The BT Ambassador has also been awarded an MBE in for services to disability sport, been presented with an Honorary Doctorate from Loughborough University in recognition of his outstanding services to, and performances in, disabled sport.

Also, earlier this year, Adepitan was presented with the Lifetime Achievement award by the University of East London.

It’s not a bad curriculum vitae and one that certainly makes him a worthy candidate to lead Channel 4’s coverage of the biggest disability sporting event on the planet. But for the man-of-the-moment himself; Adepitan admits he has barely had time to digest the fact that he will be the face of the Paralympics in Great Britain and what that actually means for him.

"I’m really excited," Adepitan told me in his usual engaging manner. "But it has all happened so fast.

"From actually putting the Channel 4 bid for the London 2012 Paralympics together to winning the bid and now launching the shows, it’s just crazy. It’s almost as if there hasn’t been enough time to be excited.

"But every now and again, I just sit down and think ‘wow’ because this is great. The next two years is going to be a rollercoaster ride but it’s probably going to be the best thing that’s happened to the Paralympics for the last 20 years. I mean, the BBC has been great for the Paralympics and their contribution won’t be forgotten, but Channel 4 will take it to another level."

If money is any indicator, Channel 4 certainly will take things to another level as they are set to pump around £500,000 into finding and training disabled broadcasters to help present their coverage of the Paralympics in what is a historic move. I ask Adepitan what it feels like to be spearheading a project with such a large amount of effort and funding behind it and he looks slightly taken aback.

"I haven’t really thought about it like that actually," he says with a wry smile. "I’ve just been working really hard on the bid and making sure that what Channel 4 is doing is going to be relevant and going to work.

"But when you put it in that context; I do think ****!

"It’s going to be an awful lot of work but I think what is really important is the media training I’m going to get with Channel 4 over the next few years. For me; that’s essential. I’ve worked in television and in the media for a long time but haven’t really done live television and there’s going to be a heck of a lot of live television needed to be done during London 2012.

"They are probably going to need to invest most of that half-a-million pounds on me so that I get it right! But in all honesty, the training will be essential not just for me but for all of us working on the Games because this is groundbreaking."

If possible, Adepitan’s work with Channel 4 over the next two years will make him an even bigger star. There is a slight problem with that though as he could be in danger over overshadowing the Paralympians of the future. After all, there are perhaps only two British Paralympians that are household names.

The first is obviously Adepitan while the second is undoubtedly former wheelchair racer and 11-time Paralympic gold medallist Dame Tanni Grey Thompson. Both athletes are undeniably worthy of the recognition they receive. However, both retired from competition many years ago - or at least Adepitan retired from his strongest sport many years ago - and still remain the most recognisable British Paralympians by some distance.

Adepitan though, believes that Channel 4 and the London 2012 Paralympics will help rectify this matter and pointed out that Paralympic sport alone in facing this conundrum.

"It’s something that will change over time," he explained.

"But it’s also something that happens in all sports. If you look at Steve Redgrave, whose been retired from rowing for a long time, he is a name that still overshadows a lot of the current rowers. The same could be said of Kelly Holmes in women’s middle distance running or even Seb Coe in men’s middle distance running and his era was decades ago.

"So you are always going to have stuff like that happening but it is essential that over the next two years that we create new Paralympic heroes and new Paralympic stars and I’m sure the young guys and girls we have will do that. They will let their sport do the talking and that’s what is going to get them up there.

"I mean, I hope when people see me, they recognise me for the fact that I was not a bad athlete and in fact half-decent at wheelchair basketball at one stage!"

Adepitan though does admit that being a celebratory is fun - if also very strange.

He explained: "Celebrity is all still like a wonderland because I remember 15 years ago when I was working really hard just to get in the national wheelchair basketball team. I wasn’t thinking about what I would do after that and least of all about all of this high profile stuff so I love it."

With that we prepare to part ways when immediately; I realise that we have both missed something big. Adepitan is still an athlete and while he may not be the dominant force in wheelchair tennis he was in his former sport, he is still a very good player and one of the hardest trainers around.

He is not guaranteed a wheelchair tennis berth at London 2012 by any means but nor can he cannot be discounted. Should he defy the odds and qualify for the Games, it would mean he would be both a presenter and competitor in 2012. The complex situation is something I had to ask him about before our time together came to an end.

"With tennis," he began slowly, "I’m just playing and training as much as I can. I just see where I’m at on a daily basis. I’m the sort of person that wants to be the best he can be and I can’t leave a tennis court without knowing I’ve given it everything.

"However, I think I can have just as big an impact on the Paralympics being a presenter than I can on the tennis court. I definitely want to keep training though and…"

He pauses and thinks long and hard

For that second, it appears that the realistic side of Adepitan is resigned to the fact that he will be presenting and not competing at the London 2012 Paralympics.

But then suddenly, a spark flickers behind his eyes. He sits up as if something has changed and his next words make me believe that the competitor inside him, the one that has characterised him since the age of three when lost the use of his left leg and then made him such a world renowned star, still has some life left in him yet.

"You can never say never Tom," he says with a smile that makes me feel as if he knows something that I don’t.

"Never say never. Because you never know what is going to happen tomorrow."

Tom Degun is the Paralympics correspondent for insideworldparasport