History of Paralympics

The Paralympic Games, modeled on the Olympicparticipated. Forty years later in Sydney 4,000 athletes
Games, is an international sport event for world-classfrom 128 countries participated in 18 sports making
athletes living with a disability. The Paralympic gamesSydney the biggest Paralympics ever.
are happened in every four years. The InternationalIn 1976 in Ornskoldsvik in Sweden was the first
Paralympic Committee (IPC) is conducted theinternational winter games arranged for disabled
Paralympic games.persons. Over 250 athletes from 14 countries took
The man who invented the Paralympics was thepart. The Paralympic Games have taken place at the
English neurosurgeon Sir Ludwig Guttman. On 28 Julysame venues as the Olympic Games since the Seoul
1948, the opening day of the London Olympic Games,1988 Paralympic Summer Games in South Korea and
a sports competition for World War II veterans withthe Albertville 1992 Paralympic Winter Games in
spinal cord injuries was held and twelve years later, inFrance.
Rome, Italy, 1960, Guttman's impossible dream cameParalympics is an athletic sporting event for the
true when the first disabled persons entered thephysically disabled including amputees, the blind and
Olympics.persons suffering from cerebral palsy.
The word "Paralympics" stand for "parallel" OlympicsSome of the summer games include track, archery,
and is open for disabled athletes. From 1988 in Seoul,basketball, boccie ball, bowling, cycling, equestrian
Korea, the Paralympic Summer Games has been heldevents, fencing, goal ball, judo, soccer, shooting,
in the same year as the Olympics. The Paralympicsswimming, table tennis, tennis, volleyball and weightlifting.
are for athletes from six different disability groups.Some of the winter games include skiing, ice-sledge
In Rome in 1960 400 athletes from 23 countrieshockey, ice-sled, and biathlon.