The Paralympic Games are a major international multi-sport event for athletes with physical disabilities. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and Cerebral Palsy. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, and they are held immediately following their respective Olympic Games. All Paralympic Games 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 Paralympics have grown from a small collection of British World War II veterans in 1948 to the second-largest international sport event in 2008. It has also experienced cheating controversies revolving around athletes who over-stated their disabilities and athletes who used performance-enhancing drugs. Paralympians strive for equal treatment with able-bodied Olympic athletes. There is a large funding gap between Olympic and Paralympic athletes. There are also sports, such as athletics, that are resistant to Paralympians who wish to compete equally with able-bodied athletes. There have been Paralympians who have participated in the Olympic Games and there are several notable athletes who have achieved success in the Paralympics.

The source of the term "Paralympic" is unclear. The name was originally coined as a portmanteau combining 'paraplegic' (due to its origins as games for people with spinal injuries) and 'Olympic', ^[1] the inclusion of other disability groups rendered this explanation inappropriate. The present formal explanation for the name is therefore that it derives from the Greek preposition παρά, pará ("beside" or "alongside") and thus refers to a competition held in parallel with the Olympic Games.^[1] The Summer Games of 1988 held in Seoul was the first time the term "Paralympic" came into official use.

Given the wide variety of disabilities that paralympic athletes have, there are several categories in which the athletes compete. The allowable disabilities are broken down into six broad categories. The categories are amputee, Cerebral Palsy, intellectual disability, wheelchair, visually impaired, and Les Autres (which are athletes with disabilities that don't fall into the other five categories, these include dwarfism, multiple sclerosis, and congenital deformities). These categories are further broken down into classifications, which vary from sport to sport.

History

Forerunners

Athletes with disabilities did compete in the Olympic Games prior to the advent of the Paralympics. The first athlete to do so was Hungarian Karoly Takacs who competed in shooting events in both the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics. He was a right-arm amputee and was able to shoot left handed. The only other disabled athlete to appear in the Olympics prior to the Paralympic Games was Liz Hartel, a Danish equestrian athlete. She had contracted polio in 1943 and yet was able to win a silver medal in the dressage event.^[2] The first organized athletic event for disabled athletes that coincided with the Olympic Games took place on the day of the opening of the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. Dr. Ludwig Guttmann of Stoke Mandeville Hospital hosted a sports competition for British World War II veteran patients with spinal cord injuries. The first Games were called the 1948 International Wheelchair Games, and were intended to coincide with the 1948 Olympics.^[3] Dr. Guttman's aim was to create an elite sports competition for people with disabilities that would be equivalent to the Olympic Games.^[3] The Games were held again at the same location in 1952, and Dutch veterans took part alongside the British, making it the first international competition of its kind. These early competitions, also known as the Stoke Mandeville Games, have been described as the precursors of the Paralympic Games.^[4]

Paralympic Games milestones

There have been several milestones in the Paralympic movement. The first official Paralympic Games, no longer open solely to war veterans, was held in Rome, Italy, in 1960.^[5] 400 athletes from 23 countries competed at the 1960 Games. The Games were open only to athletes in wheelcharis.^[3] The first Winter Paralympic Games were held in 1976 in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. This was the first Paralympics in which multiple categories of athletes with disabilities could compete.^[6] At the 1976 Summer Games, athletes with different disabilities were included for the first time at a Summer Paralympics. With the inclusion of more disability classifications the 1976 Summer Games expanded to 1,600 athletes from 40 countries.^[6] The 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul, South Korea, was another milestone for the Paralympic movement. It was in Seoul that the Paralympic Summer Games were held directly after the Olympic Summer Games, in the same host city, and using the same facilities. This set a precedence that was followed in 1992 and 1996. It was eventually formalized in an agreement between the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2001.^[6][7] The 1992 Winter Paralympics were the first Winter Games to use the same facilities as the Winter Olympics. Since 1960, the Paralympic Games have taken place in the same year as the Olympic Games.^[6][8]

Current

The Paralympic Games were designed to emphasize the participants' athletic achievements, not their disability.^[1] The movement has grown dramatically since its early days – for example the number of athletes participating in the Summer Paralympic Games has increased from 400 athletes in Rome in 1960 to over 3,900 athletes from 146 countries in Beijing in 2008.^[9] Both the Paralympic Summer and Winter Games are recognized on the world stage. The Paralympics is now the world’s largest sporting events after the Olympics and is the fastest growing movement in international sports. It is no longer held solely for British war veterans or just for athletes in wheelchairs, but for elite athletes, with a wide variety of disabilities, from all over the world.^[10]

International Paralympic Committee

Forerunners 1964 - 1989

The first organization dedicated to advancement of athletic opportunities for disabled people was the International Sports Organization for the Disabled (ISOD), founded in 1964. The founders of this organization intended it to be a governing body to disabled sports what the IOC was to the Olympic Games.^[11] This committee eventually became the International Coordinating Committee of World Sports Organizations for the Disabled (ICC), which was established in 1982. The ICC was tasked with advocating for the rights of disabled athletes in front of the IOC.^[12] After the success of the cooperative effort between the ICC and the IOC, which resulted in the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul, the ICC determined the need to expand and include representatives from all nations that had disabled sports programs. They also deemed it necessary to include athletes in the decisions of the Paralympic governing body. Consequently this body was reorganized as the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) in 1989.^[6][13]

IPC 1989 - current

The IPC is the global governing body of the Paralympic Movement. It is comprised of 165 National Paralympic Committees (NPC) and four disability-specific international sports federations. The president of the IPC is Philip Craven, a former Paralympian from Great Britain. In his capacity as head of the IPC, Craven is also a member of the International Olympic Committee.^[14] The IPC's international headquarters are in Bonn, Germany. The IPC is responsible for organizing the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games. It also serves as the International Federation for nine sports. This requires the IPC to supervise and coordinate the World Championships and other competitions for each of the nine sports it regulates.^[1] Subsumed under the authority of the IPC are a large number of national and international sporting organizations and federations. The IPC also recognizes media partners, certifies officials, judges, and is responsible for enforcing the bylaws of the Paralympic Charter.^[15]

Relationship with the Internaional Olympic Committee

The IPC has a cooperative relationship with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). For example, In 2001 the IOC and the IPC signed an agreement which guaranteed that host cities would be contracted to manage both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This agreement will remain in effect until the 2012 Summer Olympics.^[6] Additionally, delegates of the IPC are also members of the IOC and participate on IOC committees and commissions. The two governing bodies remain distinct, with separate Games, despite the close working relationship.^[16] The IOC has written its commitment to equal access to athletics for all people into its charter, which states,^[17]

The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practising sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play....Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.

While the Charter is silent on discrimination specifically related to disability; given the language in the Charter regarding discrimination it is reasonable to infer that discrimination on the basis of disability would be against the ideals of the Olympic Charter and the IOC.^[18] This is also consistent with the Paralympic Charter, which forbids discrimination on the basis of political, religious, economic, disability, gender, sexual orientation or racial reasons.^[19]

Symbol, vision and motto

“Spirit in Motion” is the motto for the Paralympic movement. The symbol for the Paralympics contains three colors, red, blue, and green, which are the colors most widely represented in the flags of nations. The colors are each in the shape of an Agito (which is Latin for "I move"). The three Agitos circle a central point, which is a symbol for the athletes congregating from all points of the globe.^[20] The motto and symbol of the IPC were changed in 2003 to their current versions. The change was intended to convey the idea that Paralympians have a spirit of competition and that the IPC as an organization realizes its potential and is moving forward to achieve it. The vision of the IPC is, "To enable Paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence and to inspire and excite the world."^[21]

Media coverage

While the Olympic Games have experienced tremendous growth in global media coverage since the 1984 Summer Olympics, the Paralympics have been unable to maintain an consistent international media presence. Television broadcasts of Paralympic Games began in 1976, but this early coverage was confined to taped-delay releases to one nation or region. At the 1992 Summer Paralympics there was 45 hours of live coverage but it was available only in Europe. Other countries broadcasted highlight packages during the Games. No meaningful improvements in coverage occured until the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney.^[22] The 2000 Paralympics represented a significant increase in global media exposure for the Paralympic Games. A deal was reached between the Sydney Paralympic Organizing Committee (SPOC) and All Media Sports (AMS) to broadcast the Games internationally. Deals were reached with Asian, South American, and European broadcast companies to distribute coverage to as many markets as possible. The Games were also webcast for the first time. Because of these efforts the Sydney Paralympics reached a global audience estimated at 300 million people.^[23] Despite these advances consistent media attention has been a challenge, which was evidenced in the coverage of the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Great Britain. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was criticized for its minimal coverage of the 2010 Winter Paralympics as compared to its coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics. The BBC announced it would stream some content on its website and show a one-hour highlight program after the Games ended. For the Winter Olympics the BBC aired 160 hours of coverage. The response from the BBC was that budget constraints and the "time zone factor" necessitated a limited broacast schedule.^[24] The reduction in coverage was done inspite of increased ratings for the 2008 Summer Paralympics, which was watched by 23% of the population of Great Britain.^[24]

Controversies

Cheating

The Paralympic Games have been damaged by cheating scandals. After the 2000 Sydney Games, a Spanish basketball player alleged that several members of the gold-medal winning Spanish basketball intellectually disabled (ID) team were not disabled. He claimed that only two athletes out of the twelve-member team met the qualifications of an intellectually disabled athlete.^[25] A controversy ensued and the IPC called on the Spanish National Paralympic Committee to launch an investigation.^[26] The investigation uncovered several Spanish athletes who had flouted the ID rules. In an interview with the president of the federation that oversees ID competition, Fernando Martin Vicente admitted that athletes around the world were breaking the ID eligibility rules. The IPC responded by starting an investigation of its own.^[25] The results of the IPC's investigation confirmed the Spanish athlete's allegations and also determined that the incident was not isolated to the basketball ID event or to Spanish athletes.^[25] As a result all ID competitions were suspended indefinitely.^[27] The ban was lifted after the 2008 Games after work had been done to tighten the criteria and controls governing admission of athletes with intellectual disabilities. Four sports, swimming, athletics, table tennis and rowing, are anticipated to hold competitions for ID athletes at the 2012 Summer Paralympics.^[28][29]

The Paralympics have also been tainted by steroid use. At the 2008 Games in Beijing, three powerlifters and a German basketball player were banned after having tested positive for banned substances.^[28] This was a decrease in comparison to the ten powerlifters and one track athlete who were banned from the 2000 Games.^[30] German skier, Thomas Oelsner, became the first Winter Paralympian to test positive for steroids. He had won two gold medals at the 2002 Winter Paralympics, but his medals were stripped after his positive drug test.^[31]

Another concern now facing Paralympic officials is the technique of boosting blood pressure, known as autonomic dysreflexia. The increase in blood pressure has been shown to improve performance by 15%. This is most effective in the endurances sports such as cross-country skiing. To increase blood pressure athletes will deliberately cause trauma to limbs below a spinal injury. This trauma can include breaking bones, strapping extremities in too tightly, and using high-pressured compression stockings. The injury is painless but it does have an impact on the athlete's blood pressure.^[32]

Equality

Various Olympic Committees have been criticized for not providing equal funding to Paralympic athletes as compared to able-bodied athletes. An example of this criticism is a law suit filed by Tony Iniguez, who represented the United States as a participant in the 1,500 meter wheelchair race at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. He alleges that the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) is underfunding American Paralympic athletes. Iniguez cites the fact that the USOC makes health care benefits available to a smaller percentage of Paralympians, the USOC provides smaller quarterly training stipends and pays smaller financial awards for medals won at a Paralympics. The USOC does not deny the discrepancy in funding and contends that this is due to the fact that it does not receive any government financial support. As a result it must rely on revenue generated by the media exposure of its athletes. Olympic athletic success results in greater exposure for the USOC than Paralympic athletic achievements. USOC support for Paralympic athletes has improved. In 2008 $11.4 million was earmarked for Paralympic athletes, up from $3 million in 2004. Iniguez's case has already been heard by lower courts, who have ruled that the USOC has the right to allocate it's finances to athletes at different rates. The case has been appealed to the Supreme Court.^[33]

Paralympic athletes also seek equal opportunities to compete at the Olympic Games. The precedent was set by Neroli Fairhall, a Paralympic archer from New Zealand, who competed at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.^[34] In 2008 Oscar Pistorius, a South African sprinter, attempted to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Pistorius had both his legs amputated below the knee and races with two carbon fiber blades. He holds Paralympic records in the 100, 200, and 400 meter events. In 2007 he competed in his first international able-bodied track meet, after which the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), Track and Field's governing body, banned the use of any technical device that employs "...springs, wheels or any other element that provides a user with an advantage over another athlete not using such a device." The concern amongst athletes and the IAAF was that Pistorius' blades gave him an unfair advantage. The IAAF then ruled that Pistorius was ineligible for the 2008 Summer Games.^[35] This ruling was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport who contended that the IAAF had not provided sufficient scientific evidence that Pistorius' prostheses gave him undue advantages. Consequently, if he could achieve an Olympic-qualifying time, he would be allowed to compete.^[36] His best opportunity to qualify was in the 400 meter race. Pistorius missed the Olympic-qualifying time at this distance by .70 seconds. He did compete in the 2008 Summer Paralympics where he won gold medals in the 100, 200, and 400 meter sprints.^[37]

Disability categories

The IPC has established six disability categories. Athletes with one of these physical disabilities are able to compete in the Paralympics though not every sport can allow for every disability category. These categories apply to both Summer and Winter Paralympics.^[38]

• 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.
• 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 is the French for "the others").^[38]

Classification

Medical classification: beginning - 80s

From the early years of the Paralympic movement, to the 1980s, the main factors that determined a class were diagnosis and medical evaluation. For example an athlete who had a spinal cord injury that resulted in lower limb paresis, would not compete in the same wheelchair race as an athlete with a double above knee amputation. The fact that their disability caused roughly the same impariment did not factor into classification determination, the only consideration was their medical diagnosis. It was not until views on disabled athletics shifted from just a form of rehabilitation to an end in itself did the classification system change from medical diagnosis to a focus on the functional abilities of the athlete.^[39]

Functional classification: 80s - present

Within the six disability categories the athletes still need to be divided according to their level of impairment. The classification systems differ from sport to sport, and are intended to open up sports to as many athletes as possible, who can participate in fair competitions against athletes with similar levels of ability. The biggest challenge in the classification system is how to account for the wide variety and severity of disabilities. As a result there will always be a range of impairment within a classification.^[40]

Some sports are only held for certain disability types. For example, goalball is only for visually impaired athletes. The Paralympics recognizes three different grades of visual impairment, consequently all competitors in goalball must wear a visor or "black out mask" so that athletes with less visual impairment would not have an undue advantage.^[41] Other sports, like athletics, are open to athletes with a wide variety of impairments. In athletics participants are broken down into a range of classes based on the disability they have and then they are placed in a classification within that range based on their level of impairment. For example: classes 11–13 are for visually impaired athletes, which class they are in depends on their level of visual impairment.^[42] Finally there are team competitions such as wheelchair rugby. In team competitions the members of the team are each given a point value based on their level of impairment. The higher the value the higher the athlete's level of function. The team has a point cap that all the competitors in play at a given time must fit under. For example: in wheelchair rugby the five players' combined disability number must total no more than eight points.^[43]

Notable champions and achievements

Trischa Zorn of the United States is the most decorated Paralympian in history. She competed in the blind swimming events and won a total of 55 medals, 41 of which are gold. Her Paralympic career spanned 24 years from 1980 to 2004. She was also an alternate on the 1980 American Olympic swim team, but did not go to the Olympics due to a boycott by the United States and several of its allies.^[44][45] Ragnhild Myklebust of Norway holds the record for the most medals ever won at the Winter Paralympic Games. Competing in a variety of events in 1988, 1992, 1994 and 2002, she won a total of 22 medals, of which 17 were gold. After winning five gold medals at the 2002 Games she retired at the age of 58.^[46] Neroli Fairhall, a paraplegic archer from New Zealand, was the first paraplegic competitor, and the first Paralympian, to participate in the Olympic Games, when she competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. She placed thirty-fourth in the Olympic archery competition, and won a Paralympic gold medal in the same event.^[47]

Host cities

Paralympic Games host cities^[48]

Year	Summer Paralympic Games		Winter Paralympic Games
	Olympiad	Host city	No.	Host city
1960	I	Rome, Italy
1964	II	Tokyo, Japan
1968	III	Tel Aviv, Israel
1972	IV	Heidelberg, West Germany
1976	V	Toronto, Canada	I	Örnsköldsvik, Sweden
1980	VI	Arnhem, Netherlands	II	Geilo, Norway
1984	VI	Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom New York, United States	III	Innsbruck, Austria
1988	VIII	Seoul, South Korea	IV	Innsbruck, Austria
1992	IX	Barcelona, Spain	V	Albertville, France
1994			VI	Lillehammer, Norway
1996	X	Atlanta, United States
1998			VII	Nagano, Japan
2000	XI	Sydney, Australia
2002			VIII	Salt Lake City, United States
2004	XII	Athens, Greece
2006			IX	Turin, Italy
2008	XIII	Beijing, China
2010			X	Vancouver, Canada
2012	XIX	London, United Kingdom
2014			XI	Sochi, Russia
2016	XX	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2018			XII	To be determined
2020	XXI	To be determined

Sports

There are twenty paralympic sports on the Summer Paralympic program and there are five paralympic sports on the Winter Paralympics program. Within some of the sports are several events. For example, alpine skiing has a slalom and giant slalom. The IPC has governance over several of the sports but not all of them. Other international organizations, known as International Sports Federations (IF), notably the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation (IWAS), the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA), and the Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CP-ISRA), govern some sports that are specific to certain disability groups.^[49] There are national chapters for these International Sport Federations including National Paralympic Committees, which are responsible for recruitment of athletes and governance of sports at the national level.^[50]

See also

• All-time Paralympic Games medal table
• Olympic Games
• Deaflympics
• Disabled sports
• Extremity Games

Notes

References

• Cashman, Richard; Darcy, Simon (2008). Benchmark Games: The Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games. Petersham, Australia: Walla Walla Press. ISBN 9781876718053. Retrieved 2010-04-29.
• DePauw, Karen P.; Gavron, Susan J. (2005). Disability Sport. Champaign, United States: Human Kinetics. ISBN 0736046380. Retrieved 2010-04-29.
• Galligan, Frank (2000). Advanced PE for Edexcel. Oxford, United Kingdom: Heinemann Educational Publishers. ISBN 0435506439. Retrieved 2010-04-29.
• Gilbert, Keith; Schantz, Otto J. (2008). The Paralympic Games:Empowerment of Side Show?. New York, United States: Meyer and Meyer Ltd. ISBN 9781841262659. Retrieved 2010-04-29.
• Howe, P. David (2008). The cultural politics of the paralympic movement. New York, United States: Routledge. ISBN 020350609. Retrieved 2010-04-29. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help)

Further reading

• Peterson, Cynthia and Robert D. Steadward. Paralympics : Where Heroes Come, 1998, One Shot Holdings, ISBN 0968209203.
• Thomas and Smith, Disability, Sport and Society, Routledge, 2008, ISBN 978-0-415-37819-2.

External links

• Paralympic Link Directory
• Official IPC Website
• Paralympics History By Susana Correia in Accessible Portugal Online Magazine