Paralympic Games

The Paralympic Games is a major

international multi-sport event involving
athletes with a range of disabilities,
including impaired muscle power (e.g.
paraplegia and quadriplegia, muscular
dystrophy, post-polio syndrome, spina
bifida), impaired passive range of
movement, limb deficiency (e.g.
amputation or dysmelia), leg length
difference, short stature, hypertonia,
ataxia, athetosis, vision impairment and
intellectual impairment. There are Winter
and Summer Paralympic Games, which
since the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul,
South Korea, are held almost immediately
following the respective Olympic Games.
All Paralympic Games are governed by the
International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

The Paralympics has grown from a small

gathering of British World War II veterans
in 1948 to become one of the largest
international sporting events by the early
21st century. Paralympians strive for equal
treatment with non-disabled Olympic
athletes, but there is a large funding gap
between Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

The Paralympic Games are organized in

parallel with the Olympic Games, while the
IOC-recognized Special Olympics World
Games include athletes with intellectual
disabilities, and the Deaflympics include
deaf athletes.[1][2]

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 ten eligible impairment types. The
categories are impaired muscle power,
impaired passive range of movement, limb
deficiency, leg length difference, short
stature, hypertonia, ataxia, athetosis,
vision impairment and intellectual
impairment.[3] These categories are
further broken down into classifications,
which vary from sport to sport.

Forerunners

Sir Ludwig Guttmann

Athletes with disabilities did compete in
the Olympic Games prior to the advent of
the Paralympics. The first athlete to do so
was German American gymnast George
Eyser in 1904, who had one artificial leg.
Hungarian Karoly Takacs competed in
shooting events in both the 1948 and 1952
Summer Olympics. He was a right-arm
amputee and could shoot left-handed.
Another disabled athlete to appear in the
Olympics prior to the Paralympic Games
was Lis Hartel, a Danish equestrian athlete
who had contracted polio in 1943 and won
a silver medal in the dressage event.[4]
The first organized athletic day 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. Jewish-
German born Dr. Ludwig Guttmann of
Stoke Mandeville Hospital,[5] who had
been helped to flee Nazi Germany by the
Council for Assisting Refugee Academics
(CARA) in 1939,[6] 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.[7] Dr. Guttman's aim was to
create an elite sports competition for
people with disabilities that would be
equivalent to the Olympic Games. The
games were held again at the same
location in 1952, and Dutch and Israeli
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.

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 in
1960.[8] 400 athletes from 23 countries
competed at the 1960 Games. Since 1960,
the Paralympic Games have taken place in
the same year as the Olympic Games.[9][10]
The Games were initially open only to
athletes in wheelchairs; at the 1976
Summer Games, athletes with different
disabilities were included for the first time
at a Summer Paralympics.[7] With the
inclusion of more disability classifications
the 1976 Summer Games expanded to
1,600 athletes from 40 countries.[9] 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 precedent that was
followed in 1992, 1996 and 2000. It was
eventually formalized in an agreement
between the International Paralympic
Committee (IPC) and the International
Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2001,[9][11]
and was recently extended through
2020.[12] The 1992 Winter Paralympics
were the first Winter Games to use the
same facilities as the Winter Olympics.
Winter Games
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.[9] The Winter Games were
celebrated every four years on the same
year as their summer counterpart, just as
the Olympics were. This tradition was
upheld until the 1992 Games in Albertville,
France; after that, beginning with the 1994
Games, the Winter Paralympics and the
Winter Olympics have been held in those
even numbered years separate from the
Summer Games.[9]
Recent games
The Paralympic games were designed to
emphasize the participants' athletic
achievements and not their disability.
Recent games have emphasized that
these games are about ability and not
disability.[13] 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
164 countries in London in 2012.[14] Both
the Paralympic Summer and Winter
Games are recognized on the world stage.
The Paralympics 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.[15]

International Paralympic
Committee

IPC headquarters in Bonn

 

First Paralympic symbol (1988–1994) used five pa.

The IPC is the global governing body of the

Paralympic Movement. It comprises
176[16] National Paralympic Committees
(NPC) and four disability-specific
international sports federations.[17] The
president of the IPC is Philip Craven, a
former Paralympian from Great Britain.[18]
In his capacity as head of the IPC, Craven
is also a member of the International
Olympic Committee.[19] The IPC's
international headquarters are in Bonn,
Germany.[20] The IPC is responsible for
organizing the Summer and Winter
Paralympic Games. It also serves as the
International Federation for nine sports
(Paralympic athletics, Paralympic
swimming, Paralympic shooting,
Paralympic powerlifting, Para-alpine skiing,
Paralympic biathlon, Paralympic cross-
country skiing, ice sledge hockey and
Wheelchair DanceSport). This requires the
IPC to supervise and coordinate the World
Championships and other competitions
for each of the nine sports it regulates.[13]
IPC membership also includes National
Paralympic Committees [16] and
international sporting federations.[21]
International Federations are independent
sport federations recognized by the IPC as
the sole representative of a Paralympic
Sport. International Federations
responsibilities include technical
jurisdiction and guidance over the
competition and training venues of their
respective sports during the Paralympic
Games. The IPC also recognizes media
partners, certifies officials, judges, and is
responsible for enforcing the bylaws of the
Paralympic Charter.[22]

The IPC has a cooperative relationship

with the International Olympic Committee
(IOC). 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.[23]

Name and symbols

The Paralympic flag

Although the name was originally coined

as a portmanteau combining "paraplegic"
(due to its origins as games for people
with spinal injuries) and "Olympic," the
inclusion of other disability groups meant
that this was no longer considered very
accurate. The present formal explanation
for the name is 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.[24] The Summer Games
of 1988 held in Seoul was the first time the
term "Paralympic" came into official use.

“Spirit in Motion” is the motto for the

Paralympic movement. The symbol for the
Paralympics contains three colours, red,
blue, and green, which are the colours
most widely represented in the flags of
nations. The colours are each in the shape
of an Agito (which is Latin for "I move"),
which is the name given to an
asymmetrical crescent specially designed
for the Paralympic movement. The three
Agitos circle a central point, which is a
symbol for the athletes congregating from
all points of the globe.[25] 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."[26] The Paralympic
anthem is "Hymne de l'Avenir" or "Anthem
of the Future". It was composed by Thierry
Darnis and adopted as the official anthem
in March 1996.[27]

Ceremonies
Opening

Opening ceremony of the 2004 Summer Paralympics

in Athens
As mandated by the Paralympic Charter,
various elements frame the opening
ceremony of the Paralympic Games. Most
of these rituals were established at the
1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp.[28]
The ceremony typically starts with the
hoisting of the host country's flag and a
performance of its national anthem. Unlike
the Olympic Games, immediately after the
national anthem the athletes parade into
the stadium grouped by nation. Since the
1988 Summer Paralympics, the nations
enter the stadium alphabetically according
to the host country's chosen language,
though with the host country's athletes
being the last to enter. Since the 1988
Summer Paralympics, the host nation
presents artistic displays of music,
singing, dance, and theatre representative
of its culture.

Speeches are given, formally opening the

games. Finally, the Paralympic torch is
brought into the stadium and passed on
until it reaches the final torch carrier—
often a Paralympic athlete from the host
nation—who lights the Paralympic flame in
the stadium's cauldron.[29]

Closing
The closing ceremony of the Paralympic
Games takes place after all sporting
events have concluded. Flag-bearers from
each participating country enter, followed
by the athletes who enter together, without
any national distinction. The Paralympic
flag is taken down. Since the 1988 Winter
Paralympics, with some exceptions, the
national flag of the country hosting the
next Summer or Winter Paralympic Games
is hoisted while the corresponding
national anthem is played. The games are
officially closed, and the Paralympic flame
is extinguished.[30] After these compulsory
elements, the next host nation briefly
introduces itself with artistic displays of
dance and theater representative of its
culture.

Medal presentation

A medal ceremony during the 2010 Winter

Paralympics

A medal ceremony is held after each

Paralympic event is concluded. The
winner, second and third-place
competitors or teams stand on top of a
three-tiered rostrum to be awarded their
respective medals. After the medals are
given out by an IPC member, the national
flags of the three medallists are raised
while the national anthem of the gold
medallists country plays.[31] Volunteering
citizens of the host country also act as
hosts during the medal ceremonies, as
they aid the officials who present the
medals and act as flag-bearers.[32] For
every Paralympic event, the respective
medal ceremony is held, at most, one day
after the event's final.

Equality
Relationship with the Olympics

In 2001 the International Olympic

Committee (IOC) and the International
Paralympic Committee (IPC) signed an
agreement which guaranteed that host
cities would be contracted to manage both
the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This
agreement was to remain in effect until
the 2012 Summer Olympics,[9] but was
extended, encompassing all Summer and
Winter games up until the 2020 Summer
Olympics.[33]

The IOC has written its commitment to

equal access to athletics for all people into
its charter, which states,[34]

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.[35] 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.[36]

Chairman of the London organising

committee, Sebastian Coe, said about the
2012 Summer Paralympics and 2012
Summer Olympics in London, England,
that, "We want to change public attitudes
towards disability, celebrate the excellence
of Paralympic sport and to enshrine from
the very outset that the two Games are an
integrated whole."[37]

The 2014 Winter Paralympic Games is the

first such Paralympics hosted by Russia.
Russia ratified the UN Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities during
that period. Notably at 2010 Vancouver
their Paralympic team topped the medal
table at the Winter Paralympics, while their
Olympic team performed well below
expectations at the Winter Olympics. This
led the media to highlight the contrast
between the achievements of the country's
Olympic and Paralympic delegations,
despite the greater attention and funding
awarded to the Olympic athletes.[38][39] The
Russian Federation organizers of the 2014
Winter Paralympic Games have, since
2007, made efforts to make the host city
Sochi more accessible.[40]
Paralympians at the Olympics

Oscar Pistorius at a track meet on 8 July 2007

Paralympic athletes have sought 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.[41]
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 fibre blades
manufactured by Ossur. He holds
Paralympic world record in the 400 meter
event.[42] Pistorius missed qualifying for
the 2008 Summer Olympics in the
400 meter race, by 0.70 seconds. He
qualified for the 2008 Summer
Paralympics where he won gold medals in
the 100, 200, and 400 meter sprints.[43] In
2011, Pistorius qualified for the 2012
Summer Olympics and competed in two
events: he made the semi-final in the 400
metres race; and his team came 8th in the
final of the 4 × 400 metres relay race.[44]

Some athletes without a disability also

compete at the Paralympics; The sighted
guides for athletes with a visual
impairment are such a close and essential
part of the competition that the athlete
with visual impairment and the guide are
considered a team, and both athletes are
medal candidates.[45]

Funding

There has been criticism for not providing

equal funding to Paralympic athletes as
compared to Olympic athletes. An
example of this criticism was a lawsuit
filed by Paralympic athletes Tony Iniguez,
Scot Hollonbeck and Jacob Heilveil of the
United States, in 2003.[46] They alleged
that the United States Olympic Committee
(USOC), which also include the USOC
Paralympic Division (the National
Paralympic Committee), was underfunding
American Paralympic athletes. Iniguez
cited the fact that the USOC made
healthcare benefits available to a smaller
percentage of Paralympians, the USOC
provided smaller quarterly training
stipends and paid smaller financial awards
for medals won at a Paralympics. US
Paralympians saw this as a disadvantage
for the US Paralympic athletes, as nations
such as Canada and Britain supported
Paralympians and Olympians virtually
equally. The USOC did not deny the
discrepancy in funding and contended that
this was due to the fact that it did not
receive any government financial support.
As a result, it had to rely on revenue
generated by the media exposure of its
athletes. Olympic athletic success
resulted in greater exposure for the USOC
than Paralympic athletic achievements.
The case was heard by lower courts, who
ruled that the USOC has the right to
allocate its finances to athletes at different
rates. The case was appealed to the
Supreme Court,[47] where on September 6,
2008 it announced that it would not hear
the appeal. However, during the time the
lawsuit lasted (from 2003 to 2008), the
funding from the USOC had nearly tripled.
In 2008 $11.4 million was earmarked for
Paralympic athletes, up from $3 million in
2004.[46]

As with the Olympics, recent Paralympics

have also been supported by contributions
from major sponsors. Unlike the Olympics,
where the IOC mandates that arenas be
clean of sponsor logos, the Paralympics
do allow the logos of official sponsors to
be displayed inside arenas and on
uniforms.[48]

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 a 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 were
45 hours of live coverage but it was
available only in Europe. Other countries
broadcast highlight packages during the
Games. No meaningful improvements in
coverage occurred until the 2000 Summer
Paralympics in Sydney.

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.[49] Also significant was the fact
that the organizers did not have to pay
networks to televise the Games as had
been done at the 1992 and 1996
Games.[50] Despite these advances
consistent media attention has been a
challenge, which was evidenced in the
coverage in Great Britain of the 2010
Winter Paralympics.
In the UK, it is a legal requirement for the
games to be broadcast by a free-to-air
broadcaster; 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
broadcast schedule.[51] The reduction in
coverage was done in spite of increased
ratings for the 2008 Summer Paralympics,
which was watched by 23% of the
population of Great Britain.[51] In Norway,
the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation
(NRK) broadcast 30 hours of the 2010
Winter Games live. NRK-sport were critical
of parts of the TV production from
Vancouver, and notified the EBU of issues
such as the biathlon coverage excluding
the shooting, and cross-country skiing with
skiers in the distance, making it hard to
follow the progress of the competition.
NRK were far more pleased with the
production of the ice sledge hockey and
wheelchair curling events, which they felt
reached the same level as the Olympic
Games.[52]

Public-service broadcaster Channel 4

acquired the rights to the Paralympics in
the United Kingdom for the 2012 Summer
Paralympics, and planned to air extensive
coverage of the games; Channel 4 aired
150 hours of coverage, and also offered
mobile apps, and three dedicated
streaming channels of additional coverage
on Sky, Freesat, Virgin Media and Channel
4's website."[53] Channel 4 also made a
push to heighten the profile of the
Paralympics in the country by producing a
2 minute trailer for its coverage, "Meet the
Superhumans"; which premièred
simultaneously on over 70 commercial
channels in the UK on 17 July 2012.[54][55]
Channel 4 have also acquired the rights to
the 2014 Winter Paralympics and the 2016
Summer Paralympics.[56]

American broadcaster NBC Sports, who

also owns the broadcast rights to the
Olympics, has been criticised by athletes
and IPC officials for airing too little
coverage of the Paralympics; the lack of
coverage from NBC in Athens was a cause
for concern from senior IPC officials,
especially given that the United States was
bidding for the 2012 Games. In 2012 NBC
only produced around 5 hours of tape
delayed highlights from the Games, airing
on the pay TV channel NBC Sports
Network, and did not cover the ceremonies
at all.[57]

IPC president Philip Craven was vocal

about NBC's reluctance to air coverage in
2012, expressing his disappointment for
American athletes and viewers who would
miss the "amazing images" the games
would bring, and remarking that "some
people think that North America always
lead[s] on everything, and on this they
don't. It's about time they caught up."[58]
Following the closing ceremonies, Craven
hinted that the IPC might put greater
scrutiny on broadcasters at future editions
of the Paralympics (or may strip NBC of its
broadcast rights), by stating that "if we
find our values don’t fit, we’ll have to go
somewhere else."[59] NBC would pick up
broadcast rights to the 2014 and 2016
Paralympics, promising significantly
increased coverage than before.[60]

Outside the games

A 2010 study by the University of British

Columbia (UBC) on the Olympic Games
Impact (OGI), showed that of roughly
1,600 Canadian respondents, 41–50
percent believed the 2010 Paralympic and
Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada
triggered additional accessibility of
buildings, sidewalks and public spaces. 23
percent of employers said the Games had
increased their willingness to hire people
with disabilities.[61]

Chief Executive Officer for the

International Paralympic Committee,
Xavier Gonzalez, said about the 2008
Summer Paralympics in Beijing, China, that

"In China, the (Paralympic)

Games were really a
 transformation tool for changing
attitudes across the board in
China towards people with
disability, to building accessibility
facilities in the city, to changing
laws to allow people with a
disability to be part of society."[62]

Classification

Olena Iurkovska of Ukraine competing on cross-

country sit-skis at the 2010 Winter Paralympics.
country sit-skis at the 2010 Winter Paralympics.

The International Paralympic Committee

(IPC) has established ten disability
categories. Athletes are divided within
each category according to their level of
impairment, in a functional classification
system which differs from sport to sport.

Categories

The IPC has established ten disability

categories, including physical, visual, and
intellectual impairment. Athletes with one
of these disabilities can compete in the
Paralympics though not every sport can
allow for every disability category. These
categories apply to both Summer and
Winter Paralympics.[63]

Physical Impairment – There are eight

different types of physical impairment:

Impaired muscle power – With

impairments in this category, the force
generated by muscles, such as the
muscles of one limb, one side of the body
or the lower half of the body is reduced,
(e.g. spinal cord injury, spina bifida, post-
polio syndrome).
Impaired passive range of movement –
Range of movement in one or more joints
is reduced in a systematic way. Acute
conditions such as arthritis are not
included.
Loss of limb or limb deficiency – A
total or partial absence of bones or joints
from partial or total loss due to illness,
trauma, or congenital limb deficiency (e.g.
dysmelia).
Leg-length difference – Significant
bone shortening occurs in one leg due to
congenital deficiency or trauma.
Short stature – Standing height is
reduced due to shortened legs, arms and
trunk, which are due to a musculoskeletal
deficit of bone or cartilage structures. (e.g.
achondroplasia, growth hormone
deficiency, osteogenesis imperfecta)
Hypertonia – Hypertonia is marked by
an abnormal increase in muscle tension
and reduced ability of a muscle to stretch.
Hypertonia may result from injury, disease,
or conditions which involve damage to the
central nervous system (e.g. cerebral
palsy).
Ataxia – Ataxia is an impairment that
consists of a lack of coordination of
muscle movements (e.g. cerebral palsy,
Friedreich’s ataxia, multiple sclerosis).
Athetosis – Athetosis is generally
characterized by unbalanced, involuntary
movements and a difficulty maintaining a
symmetrical posture (e.g. cerebral palsy,
choreoathetosis).

Visual Impairment – Athletes with visual

impairment ranging from partial vision,
sufficient to be judged legally blind, to total
blindness. This includes impairment of
one or more component of the visual
system (eye structure, receptors, optic
nerve pathway, and visual cortex).[63] The
sighted guides for athletes with a visual
impairment are such a close and essential
part of the competition that the athlete
with visual impairment and the guide are
considered a team. Beginning in 2012,
these guides (along with sighted
goalkeepers in 5-a-side football became
eligible to receive medals of their
own.[45][64]

Intellectual Disability – Athletes with a

significant impairment in intellectual
functioning and associated limitations in
adaptive behaviour. The IPC primarily
serves athletes with physical disabilities,
but the disability group Intellectual
Disability has been added to some
Paralympic Games. This includes only elite
athletes with intellectual disabilities
diagnosed before the age of 18.[63]
However, the IOC-recognized Special
Olympics World Games are open to all
people with intellectual disabilities.[2]

Classification system

Within the disability categories the

athletes still need to be divided according
to 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. Consequently, there
is a range of impairment within most
classifications .[65]

Medical classification (until

1980s)

From its inception until the 1980s, the

Paralympic system for classifying athletes
consisted of a medical evaluation and
diagnosis of impairment. An athlete's
medical condition was the only factor
used to determine what class they
competed in. 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 the same
impairment 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, that the classification
system changed from medical diagnosis
to a focus on the functional abilities of the
athlete.[66]

Functional classification (since

1980s)
 

The Swedish goalball team at the 2004 Summer

Paralympics

While there is no clear date when the shift

occurred, a functional classification
system became the norm for disabled
athletic classification in the 1980s. In a
functional system the focus is on what
effect the athlete's impairment has on his
or her athletic performance. Under this
system, athletes with total loss of function
in their legs will compete together in most
sports, because their functional loss is the
same and the reason for the loss is
immaterial. The only exception to the
functional system is the classification
format used by International Blind Sport
Federation (IBSA), which still uses a
medically based system.[66]

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 will not have
an advantage.[67] 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.[68]
There are also team competitions such as
wheelchair rugby. Members of the team
are each given a point value based on their
activity limitation. A lower score indicates
a more severe activity limitation than a
higher score. A team cannot have more
than a certain maximum total of points on
the field of play at the same time to ensure
equal competition. For example, in
wheelchair rugby the five players'
combined disability number must total no
more than eight points.[69]

Sports
There are twenty-two sports on the
Summer Paralympic program and five
sports on the Winter Paralympics
program. Within some of the sports are
several events. For example, alpine skiing
has downhill, super combined, super-G,
slalom, 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.[70] 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.[71]
Cheating
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.[72] A
controversy ensued and the IPC called on
the Spanish National Paralympic
Committee to launch an investigation.[73]
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.[72] 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.[72] As a result, all ID competitions
were suspended indefinitely.[74] 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, were anticipated to hold
competitions for ID athletes at the 2012
Summer Paralympics.[75][76]

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.[75]
This was a decrease in comparison to the
ten powerlifters and one track athlete who
were banned from the 2000 Games.[77]
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.[78] At the 2010 Winter Olympics
in Vancouver, Swedish curler Glenn Ikonen
tested positive for a banned substance
and was suspended for six months[79] by
the IPC. He was removed from the rest of
the curling competition but his team was
allowed to continue. The 54-year-old curler
said his doctor had prescribed a
medication on the banned substances
list.[80][81]

Another concern now facing Paralympic

officials is the technique of "boosting".
Athletes can artificially increase their
blood pressure, often by self-harming,
which has been shown to improve
performance by up to 15%. This is most
effective in the endurance 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 affect the athlete's blood
pressure.[82]

Another potential concern is the use of

gene therapy among Paralympic athletes.
All Paralympic athletes are banned from
enhancing their abilities through gene
doping, but it is extremely difficult to
differentiate these concepts.[83] The World
Anti-Doping Agency is currently
researching both gene doping and gene
therapy, in part to discern the boundary
between the two closely related
concepts.[84]

The IPC have been working with the World

Anti-Doping Agency since 2003, to ensure
compliance with WADA's anti-doping code
among its Paralympic athletes.[85] The IPC
has also promised to continue increasing
the number of athletes tested at each of
its Games, in order to further minimize the
possible effect of doping in Paralympic
sports.[85] Mandatory in- and out-of
competition testing has also been
implemented by the IPC to further ensure
all of its athletes are performing in
compliance with WADA regulations.[85]

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.[86][87] 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.[88]
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.[41]

Host cities
 List of Paralympics host cities

Summer Paralympic Games[89] Winter Paralympic Games[90]

Year
Edition Host(s) Edition Host(s)

1960 I   Rome

1964 II   Tokyo

1968 III   Tel Aviv

1972 IV   Heidelberg

1976 V   Toronto I   Örnsköldsvik

1980 VI   Arnhem, Netherlands II   Geilo

  New York
1984 VII III   Innsbruck
  Stoke Mandeville

1988 VIII   Seoul IV   Innsbruck

1992 IX   Barcelona & Madrid[91] V   Tignes & Albertville

1994 VI   Lillehammer

1996 X   Atlanta

1998 VII   Nagano

2000 XI   Sydney

2002 VIII   Salt Lake City

2004 XII   Athens

2006 IX   Turin

2008 XIII   Beijing

2010 X   Vancouver

2012 XIV   London

2014 XI   Sochi

2016 XV   Rio de Janeiro

2018 XII   PyeongChang

2020 XVI   Tokyo

2022 XIII   Beijing

2024 XVII   Paris

2026 XIV

2028 XVIII   Los Angeles

See also
All-time Paralympic Games medal table
Commonwealth Paraplegic Games
Cybathlon

Notes
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References
 Cashman, Richard; Darcy, Simon
(2008). Benchmark Games: The Sydney
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(2005). Disability Sport . Champaign,
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Edexcel . Oxford, United Kingdom:
Heinemann Educational Publishers.
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 Gilbert, Keith; Schantz, Otto J. (2008).
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Further reading
Peterson, Cynthia and Robert D.
Steadward. Paralympics : Where Heroes
Come, 1998, One Shot Holdings, ISBN 0-
9682092-0-3.
Thomas and Smith, Disability, Sport and
Society, Routledge, 2008, ISBN 978-0-415-
37819-2.

External links
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to Paralympic Games.

Official Website
Paralympic Sport TV, web-TV channel
of the International Paralympic Committee
(IPC)
Paralympic Games – Facts and figures
Keeping the momentum of the
Paralympics

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