Paralympic Games
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The Paralympic Games are a multi-sport event for athletes with physical, mental and sensorial disabilities. This includes mobility disabilities, amputees, visual disabilities and those with cerebral palsy. The Paralympic Games are held every four years, following the Olympic Games, and are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). (The Paralympic Games are sometimes confused with the Special Olympics World Games, which are only for people with intellectual disabilities).
The name derives from the Greek "para" ("beside" or "alongside") and thus refers to a competition held in parallel with the Olympic Games. No relation with paralysis or paraplegia is intended, however, the word Paralympic was originally a portmanteau combining 'paraplegic' and 'Olympic'.[1]
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[edit] History
Sir Ludwig Guttmann organized a sports competition in 1948 which became known as the Stoke Mandeville Games, involving World War II veterans with spinal cord injuries; in 1952 competitors from the Netherlands took part in the competition, giving an international notion to the movement. The first Olympic-style games for athletes with a disability were held in Rome in 1960; officially called the 9th Annual International Stoke Mandeville Games, these are considered to be the first Paralympic Games. [2] The first Winter Paralympics were held in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden in 1976.[2]
Since 1988, the Summer Paralympics have been held in conjunction with the Olympic Games in the same host city. This practice was adopted in 1992 for the Winter Paralympics, and became an official policy of the International Olympic Committee and the IPC following a June 19, 2001 agreement. The Games take place three weeks after the closing of the Olympics, in the same host city and using the same facilities. Cities bidding to host the Olympic Games must include the Paralympic Games in their bid, and typically both Games are now run by a single organizing committee.
[edit] Cheating controversies
The Paralympic Games have seen damaging scandals regarding cheating in the events. After the 2000 Sydney Games, in which non-disabled athletes were entered in the Spanish Basketball ID team [3], athletes with intellectual difficulties were suspended indefinitely by the IPC.[4] The IPC has stated that it will re-evaluate their participation following the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.[5]
[edit] Summer Games
| Summer Paralympic Games | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Games | Host City | Country |
| 1960 Summer Paralympics | I | Rome |  Italy |
| 1964 Summer Paralympics | II | Tokyo |  Japan |
| 1968 Summer Paralympics | III | Tel Aviv |  Israel |
| 1972 Summer Paralympics | IV | Heidelberg |  West Germany |
| 1976 Summer Paralympics | V | Toronto |  Canada |
| 1980 Summer Paralympics | VI | Arnhem |  Netherlands |
| 1984 Summer Paralympics | VII | Stoke Mandeville New York |
 United Kingdom United States |
| 1988 Summer Paralympics | VIII | Seoul |  South Korea |
| 1992 Summer Paralympics | IX | Barcelona |  Spain |
| 1996 Summer Paralympics | X | Atlanta | United States |
| 2000 Summer Paralympics | XI | Sydney |  Australia |
| 2004 Summer Paralympics | XII | Athens |  Greece |
| 2008 Summer Paralympics | XIII | Beijing |  China |
| 2012 Summer Paralympics | XIV | London | United Kingdom |
[edit] Summer sports
The following sports are currently on the Summer Paralympic Games programme:
- Archery
- Athletics (track and field)
- Boccia
- Cycling
- Equestrian
- Football 5-a-side
- Football 7-a-side
- Goalball
- Judo
- Powerlifting
- Rowing
- Sailing
- Shooting
- Swimming
- Table Tennis
- Volleyball (sitting)
- Wheelchair basketball
- Wheelchair fencing
- Wheelchair rugby
- Wheelchair tennis
These sports will be part of the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, China.
The following sports are not included in the Summer Paralympic Games program, but are governed by the IPC:
[edit] Winter Games
| Winter Paralympic Games | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Games | Host City | Country |
| 1976 Winter Paralympics | I | Örnsköldsvik |  Sweden |
| 1980 Winter Paralympics | II | Geilo |  Norway |
| 1984 Winter Paralympics | III | Innsbruck |  Austria |
| 1988 Winter Paralympics | IV | Innsbruck | Austria |
| 1992 Winter Paralympics | V | Albertville |  France |
| 1994 Winter Paralympics | VI | Lillehammer | Norway |
| 1998 Winter Paralympics | VII | Nagano | Japan |
| 2002 Winter Paralympics | VIII | Salt Lake City | United States |
| 2006 Winter Paralympics | IX | Turin | Italy |
| 2010 Winter Paralympics | X | Vancouver | Canada |
| 2014 Winter Paralympics | XI | Sochi |  Russia |
[edit] Winter sports
The following sports are on the current Winter Paralympic Games program:
[edit] Disability categories
- Amputee: Athletes with a partial or total loss of at least one limb.
- Cerebral Palsy: Athletes with non-progressive brain damage, for example cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, stroke or similar disabilities affecting muscle control, balance or coordination.
- Intellectual Disability: Athletes with a significant impairment in intellectual functioning and associated limitations in adaptive behavior. (This category is currently suspended.)
- Wheelchair: Athletes with spinal cord injuries and other disabilities which require them to compete in a wheelchair.
- Visually Impaired: Athletes with vision impairment ranging from partial vision, sufficient to be judged legally blind, to total blindness.
- Les Autres: Athletes with a physical disability that does not fall strictly under one of the other five categories, such as dwarfism, multiple sclerosis or congenital deformities of the limbs such as that caused by thalidomide. (The name for this category comes from the French for the others).
These categories apply to both summer and winter Paralympics.
[edit] Notes
The IPC has set up national Paralympic Games for competitions organized under the national Paralympic Committees.
[edit] External links
- Official Canadian Website
- Official IPC Website
- IMNO Interviews Curt Brinkman Five-time Paralympic Gold Medallist
- CBC Digital Archives - Playing to Win: Canada at the Paralympics
- / Match schedules of the Paralympics 2008 for electronic calendars like Outlook, iCal and Google Calendar
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ About the IPC. IPC.
- ^ a b Rome 1960. IPC.
- ^ Press Releases. IPC (27 November 2000).
- ^ Press Releases. IPC (9 March 2001).
- ^ Press Releases. IPC (26 June 2006).
[edit] Further reading
- P. David Howe, The Cultural Politics of the Paralympic Movement. Through an Anthropological Lens, Routledge, 2008, ISBN 978-0-415-28887-3
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