International multi-sport events for disabled athletes
Ice Sledge Hockey: United States (blue shirts) vs Japan (white shirts) during the 2010 Paralympics 🌟 in Vancouver.
The Paralympic sports comprise all the sports contested in the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games.
As of 2020, the Summer 🌟 Paralympics included 22 sports and 539 medal events,[1] and the Winter Paralympics include 5 sports and disciplines and about 80 🌟 events.
[2] The number and kinds of events may change from one Paralympic Games to another.
The Paralympic Games are a major 🌟 international multi-sport event for athletes with physical disabilities or intellectual impairments.
This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebral 🌟 palsy.
Paralympic sports refers to organized competitive sporting activities as part of the global Paralympic movement.
These sports are organized and run 🌟 under the supervision of the International Paralympic Committee and other international sports federations.
History [ edit ]
Archery: Lindsey Carmichael from the 🌟 United States, at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.
Organized sport for persons with physical disabilities developed out of rehabilitation programs.
Following 🌟 World War II, in response to the needs of large numbers of injured ex-service members and civilians, sport was introduced 🌟 as a key part of rehabilitation.
Sport for rehabilitation grew into recreational sport and then into competitive sport.
The pioneer of this 🌟 approach was Ludwig Guttmann of the Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England.
In 1948, while the Olympic Games were being held in 🌟 London, England, he organized a sports competition for wheelchair athletes at Stoke Mandeville.
This was the origin of the Stoke Mandeville 🌟 Games, which evolved into the modern Paralympic Games.[3]
Organization [ edit ]
Globally, the International Paralympic Committee is recognized as the leading 🌟 organization, with direct governance of nine sports, and responsibility over the Paralympic Games and other multi-sport, multi-disability events.
Other international organizations, 🌟 notably the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation (IWAS), the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA), International Sports Federation for Persons 🌟 with Intellectual Disability (INAS) and the Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CP-ISRA) govern some sports that are specific 🌟 to certain disability groups.
[4] In addition, certain single-sport federations govern sports for athletes with a disability, either as part of 🌟 an able-bodied sports federation such as the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI), or as a disabled sports federation such 🌟 as the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation.[5]
At the national level, there are a wide range of organizations that take responsibility for 🌟 Paralympic sport, including National Paralympic Committees,[6] which are members of the IPC, and many others.[citation needed]
Disability categories [ edit ]
Cycling: 🌟 Karissa Whitsell and Mackenzie Woodring (pilot) from the United States, compete in Beijing 2008
Biathlon: Andy Soule from the United States, 🌟 at the 2010 Paralympics in Vancouver.
Athletes who participate in Paralympic sport are grouped into ten major categories, based on their 🌟 type of disability:
Physical Impairment - There are eight different types of physical impairment recognized by the movement:
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.
due to spinal-cord injury, spina bifida or polio.
- 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.
due to spinal-cord injury, spina bifida or polio.
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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- Standing height is reduced due to shortened legs, arms and 🌟 trunk, which are due to a musculoskeletal deficit of bone or cartilage structures.
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).
- 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).
- Ataxia is an impairment that consists of a lack of coordination of muscle movements (e.g.
cerebral palsy, Friedreich's 🌟 ataxia).
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).
[7] 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.[8][9]
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.
[7] However, 🌟 the IOC-recognized Special Olympics World Games are open to all people with intellectual disabilities.[10][11]
The disability category determines who athletes compete 🌟 against and which sports they participate in.
Some sports are open to multiple disability categories (e.g.
cycling), while others are restricted to 🌟 only one (e.g.
Five-a-side football).
In some sports athletes from multiple categories compete, but only within their category (e.g.
athletics), while in others 🌟 athletes from different categories compete against one another (e.g.swimming).
Events in the Paralympics are commonly labelled with the relevant disability category, 🌟 such as Men's Swimming Freestyle S1, indicating athletes with a severe physical impairment, or Ladies Table Tennis 11, indicating athletes 🌟 with an intellectual disability.[12]
Classification [ edit ]
Swimming at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
A major component of Paralympic sport is classification.
[7] Classification 🌟 provides a structure for competition which allows athletes to compete against others with similar disabilities or similar levels of physical 🌟 function.
It is similar in aim to the weight classes or age categories used in some non-disabled sports.
Athletes are classified through 🌟 a variety of processes that depend on their disability group and the sport they are participating in.
Evaluation may include a 🌟 physical or medical examination, a technical evaluation of how the athlete performs certain sport-related physical functions, and observation in and 🌟 out of competition.
Each sport has its own specific classification system which factors into the rules for Olympic competition in the 🌟 sport.[citation needed]
Summer Paralympics [ edit ]
Current summer sports [ edit ]
The following table lists the currently practiced Paralympic sports,
Wheelchair basketball: 🌟 Iran vs South Africa at the 2008 Summer Paralympics.
Discontinued summer sports [ edit ]
Winter Paralympics [ edit ]
Current winter sports 🌟 [ edit ]
Alpine skiing: Talan Skeels-Piggins from Great Britain at the Winter Paralympics 2010 in Vancouver.
Discontinued winter sports [ edit 🌟 ]
Sport Eligible impairments Governing body Paralympic Games status Physical Visual Intellectual Ice sledge racing Yes Winter Sport (1980–1988, 1994–1998)
Possible future 🌟 winter sports [ edit ]
Bob Balk, the chairman of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletes' Council, launched a campaign in 🌟 early 2012 to have sliding sports (bobsleigh, luge and skeleton) included at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.[13]
At 🌟 the meeting in Madrid, Spain, on 10 and 11 September 2018, the IPC executive board announced that Para Bobsleigh had 🌟 failed in some evaluation criteria and would not be part of the official program for the 2022 Winter Paralympic Games.[14]
Abbreviations 🌟 [ edit ]Notes [ edit ]
The categories listed represent all those groups that participate in this sport at some level.
Not 🌟 all these categories are represented in competition at the Paralympic Games.
The governing bodies listed represent those organizations responsible for the 🌟 broadest level of participation.
In some cases, other disability-specific organizations will also have some governance of athletes in that sport within 🌟 their own group.
For example, the IPC governs multi-disability athletics competitions such as the Paraympic Games; however, CP-ISRA, IBSA, and IWAS 🌟 provide single-disability events in athletics for athletes with cerebral palsy, visually impaired athletes, and wheelchair and amputee athletes respectively.
Paralympic Games 🌟 status details the years these sports were practiced as full medal events at the Paralympic Games.
See also [ edit ]
