Paralympics Games

Sports Name: Multi Sports

Not Yet Rated

1 Star

2 Star

3 Star

4 Star

5 Star

Updated On : 08 Jun, 2021

Full Name
Paralympics Games

Type
international

Location
Worldwide

Disabled
No

Conducted
Once in 4 years

Gender
Both

Trivia

Disabled athletes competed in the Olympic Games before the arrival of the Paralympics. The first athlete to do so was George Eyser (German-American Gymnast) in 1904, who had a prosthetic leg. Hungary’s Károly Takács, a right-arm amputee and left-handed shooter also participated in the shooting events at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics.
The first athletic event for disabled athletes was held on the inaugural day of the 1948 Summer Olympics in the UK by a German Neuroscientist Sir Ludwig Guttmann who organized the event for 16 injured veterans of World War II. The event was called the Stoke Mandeville Games or the 1948 International Wheelchair Games.

Paralympic Games is an international multi-sport competition involving athletes with a range of disabilities, including impaired muscle power, limb deficiency, impaired passive range of movement, hypertonia, leg length difference, athetosis, short stature, ataxia, intellectual impairment and vision impairment. The first official Paralympic Games (1960 Summer Paralympics) were held in Rome while the first official Winter Paralympic Games were held in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden in 1976.

In the first Summer Paralympics, around 400 athletes from 23 countries participated in the event, and since then, these games are held in the same year as the Olympic Games. The Winter Paralympics were held every four years in the same year as their summer counterparts, just like the Olympics till 1992. After that, since 1994, the Winter Olympics as well as the Paralympics take place in every even-numbered years separating them from Summer Games.

Significance / Memorable Moments

The number of participants taking part in the Summer Paralympic Games increased from 400 athletes in 1960's Rome Summer Paralympics to 4,342 athletes in 2016's Rio Summer Paralympics.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) signed a mutual agreement in 2001 which guaranteed that host cities would be contracted to manage both the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which is valid until the 2032 Summer Olympics.
USA's Trischa Zorn is the most decorated Paralympian in history, having competed in blind swimming competitions from 1980 to 2004 and bag a total of 55 medals, 41 of which are gold. Norway's Ragnhild Myklebust holds the record for most medals won at the Winter Paralympic Games, having competed in various competitions between 1988 and 2002, winning a total of 22 medals, 17 of which are gold.

*We crave for modifications and accuracy. Help us do that with your valuable feedback.

What do you think about the above article?

Click to add a comment...
Click To Hide

Paralympics Games

Trivia

Significance / Memorable Moments

What do you think about the above article?

company

trending topics

legal

miscellaneous

sports

support