Paralympics
The Paralympics, or Paralympic Games, are an international sporting event for athletes with disabilities, both physical and intellectual, held alongside the Summer and Winter Olympics. Originating in the 1940s with the Stoke Mandeville Games organized by Sir Ludwig Guttmann for war veterans, the Paralympics have grown significantly over the decades. The first official Paralympic Games took place in Rome in 1960, featuring approximately 400 athletes from more than 20 countries. Since 1988, the event has been officially integrated into the Olympic Games, utilizing the same venues and facilities, and has gained prominence in its own right.
The International Paralympics Committee (IPC), established in 1989, oversees the organization of the Games, which now includes a wide range of sports and classifications for athletes based on ten categories of impairment. The event has seen remarkable milestones, such as the London 2012 Games, which attracted 2.7 million spectators and featured over 4,000 athletes setting numerous world records. Notable athletes include Trischa Zorn, the most decorated Paralympian, and Ragnhild Myklebust, who holds the record for medals at the Winter Paralympics. The Paralympics reflect a commitment to inclusivity and the celebration of athleticism across diverse abilities.
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Paralympics
Coinciding with both the Summer and the Winter Olympics, the Paralympics, or Paralympic Games, are a sporting competition featuring athletes with disabilities, both physical and intellectual. For four decades, the Paralympics was an unofficial supplement to the Olympic Games; since 1988, it has been an integrated feature of the larger Games, taking place immediately following the Olympics in the same host city and using the same athletic facilities.
Overview
In the 1940s, Ludwig Guttmann, a neurologist and the director of the spinal injuries unit of Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire, England, observed the sharp decline of his bedridden patients. He organized the first Paralympics, then called the Stoke Mandeville Games, as a way for war veterans with spinal injuries to engage in competitive physical exercise. The event debuted in 1948 on the same day as the London Olympic Games, which represented the renewal of the international competition after it had been suspended for twelve years because of World War II. The only sport featured at the first Paralympics was archery; over the next several years, sports such as javelin throwing and wheelchair basketball were added.
The first official Paralympic Games, open to all disabled athletes, were held in Rome in 1960 and attracted approximately four hundred athletes from more than twenty countries. In the years that followed, the competition grew to include athletes with all manner of disability, including blindness and cerebral palsy.
The Paralympic Games of 1988, which followed on the heels of the Seoul Olympics in South Korea, are considered to be the first of the modern era, with the full support and guidance of the International Olympic Committee. One hundred thousand people packed the Seoul Olympic Stadium to watch the opening ceremony. In 1989, the International Paralympics Committee (IPC) was formed.
In the years following, the Paralympics evolved into a significant sporting event, linked to the Olympics but a major draw in its own right, as athletes of all abilities competed on a grand scale in an expanding field of events. In 1992, physicist Stephen Hawking, who suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), gave an inspiring speech at the opening ceremony in Barcelona, Spain. By 2000, when the Games were held in Sydney, Australia, the Paralympic athletes shared the Olympic Village with the Olympic athletes, symbolizing the growth of the event into the mainstream and the interconnectivity between both competitions. The London Paralympic Games of 2012 drew 2.7 million spectators, and more than four thousand athletes set 251 world records.
The IPC outlines ten categories of impairment under which an athlete can compete in the Paralympics, eight of which are physical. The eight physical categories are impaired muscle power, impaired passive range of movement, loss of limb or limb deficiency, difference in leg length, reduced standing height, hypertonia and ataxia (both conditions of muscle abnormality, such as cerebral palsy), and athetosis (involuntary movement that affects posture). The other two classifications are visual and intellectual impairment.
Thousands of athletes have competed in the Paralympics. American swimmer Trischa Zorn, who was born blind, is the most decorated Paralympian ever, having won fifty-five medals in seven Paralympic Games between 1980 and 2004. Norwegian skier Ragnhild Myklebust holds the record for most medals won at the Winter Paralympics, earning twenty-seven medals in various events between 1988 and 2002.
Bibliography
Brittain, Ian. The Paralympic Games Explained. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.
Gilbert, Keith, and Otto J. Schantz. The Paralympic Games: Empowerment or Side Show? Maidenhead: Meyer, 2008. Print.
Howe, P. David. The Cultural Politics of the Paralympic Movement. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print.
Hunter, Nick. The Paralympics. London: Wayland, 2011. Print.
Misener, Laura, et al. “Beyond Olympic Legacy: Understanding Paralympic Legacy through a Thematic Analysis.” Journal of Sport Management 27.4 (2013): 329–41. Print.
Purdue, David E. J., and P. David Howe. “Who’s in and Who Is Out? Legitimate Bodies within the Paralympic Games.” Sociology of Sport Journal 30.1 (2013): 24–40. Print.