The Paralympic Games
By Balayan Marne, form 9a, school 29.
Teacher: Yankelevich E.V.
The Paralympic Games is a major international multi-sport
event, involving athletes with a range of physical and
intellectual disabilities, including mobility disabilities,
amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy.
Blindness
Cerebral palsy
Mobility disabilities
Amputations
The origins of the Paralympic Games are credited to neurologist and neurosurgeon,
Professor Ludwig Guttmann.
The Second World War influenced a new outlook on the issue of rehabilitation for
people with disabilities.
In 1944, Professor Guttmann founded a medical center at Stoke-Mandeville
Hospital (UK) for the treatment of people with spinal cord injuries.
Later, he became a founder of the International Stoke-Mandeville games for people
with injuries of the locomotor apparatus. These games were the prototype for
the Paralympic Games.
Paralympics emblem is different from the
traditional Olympics; it has three half-circles
that represent the spirit, will and mind.
There have been several milestones in the Paralympic movement. The
first official Paralympic Games were held in Rome in 1960. 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. 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.
With the inclusion of more disability classifications the 1976 Summer
Games expanded to 1,600 athletes from 40 countries.
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, and was recently extended through 2020.
There are Summer Paralympic Games,
which since the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, South Korea,
are held immediately following the Olympic Games
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1960 I Summer Paralympics Rome, Italy
1964 II Summer Paralympics Tokyo, Japan
1968 III Summer Paralympics Tel Aviv, Israel
1972 IV Summer Paralympics Heidelberg, West Germany
1976 V Summer Paralympics Toronto, Canada
1980 VI Summer Paralympics Arnhem, Netherlands
1984 VII Summer Paralympics Stoke Mandeville, UK,New York, The USA
1988 VIII Summer Paralympics Seoul, Republic of Korea
1992 IX Summer Paralympics Barcelona and Madrid,Spain
1996 X Summer Paralympics Atlanta, United States
2000 XI Summer Paralympics Sydney, Australia
2004 XII Summer Paralympics Athens, Greece
2008 XIII Summer Paralympics Beijing, China
2012 XIV Summer Paralympics London, United Kingdom
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.
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.
Winter Paralympic Games
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1976 I Winter Paralympics Örnsköldsvik, Sweden
1980 II Winter Paralympics Geilo, Norway
1984 III Winter Paralympics Innsbruck, Austria
1988IV Winter Paralympics Innsbruck, Austria
1992 V Winter Paralympics Tignes & Albertville, France
1994 VI Winter Paralympics Lillehammer, Norway
1998 VII Winter Paralympics Nagano, Japan
2002 VIII Winter Paralympics Salt Lake City, United States
2006 IX Winter Paralympics Turin, Italy
2010 X Winter Paralympics Vancouver, Canada
2014 XI Winter Paralympics Sochi, Russia
There are twenty Paralympic sports on the Summer Paralympic
program and there are five Paralympic sports on the Winter
Paralympics program. Within some of the sports are several events.
For example, alpine skiing has a slalom and giant slalom.
All Paralympic Games are governed by the International Paralympic
Committee (IPC). It comprises 174 National Paralympic Committees
(NPC) and four disability-specific international sports federations. The
president of the IPC is Philip Craven, a former Paralympian from Great
Britain. In his capacity as head of the IPC, Craven is also a member of
the International Olympic Committee. The IPC's international
headquarters are in Bonn, Germany. The IPC is responsible for
organizing the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games.
The president of the IPC is
Philip Craven, a former
Paralympian from Great
Britain.
Irek Zaripov Ayratovich-Russian sportsman, Merited Master of
Sports of Russia, four-time champion of the Paralympics Winter
Games in 2010 in Vancouver.
Dmitry Medvedev and Irek Zaripov on the Order "For Services to the
Fatherland» IV degree
Order "For Services to the Fatherland» IV degree (26 March 2010) - for
outstanding contribution to the development of physical culture and sports,
high athletic achievements at the X Paralympics Winter Games 2010 in
Vancouver (Canada)
Maria Iovleva - double Paralympics champion and silver
medalist Paralympics Winter Games 2010 in Vancouver.
Honored Master of Sports of Russia.
Anna Milenina (Burmistrov) (born July 15, 1986, Krasnoturinsk,
Sverdlovsk Oblast, RSFSR, USSR) - a Paralympics champion,
Merited Master of Sports of Russia.
Sergey V. Shilov - six-time champion of the Paralympics Games,
the four-time European champion and a winner of the World
Cup ski racing, a winner of the continental championship in
athletics. Honored Master of Sports of Russia in skiing, worldclass athlete in biathlon, world-class athlete in track and field, a
candidate master of orienteering.
Paralympic medals.
For many years Russia had no impediment – free environment. Stairways,
lifts and doors – all these were designed as if the country didn’t have people
with disabilities. The situation is changing dramatically thanks to the Sochi
Games. Russia has a unique opportunity to integrate people with disabilities
into the life of society. Transport, roads, sports and social infrastructure will
provide a model for an impediment-free environment for the whole country.
Paralympic sport, the Paralympic movement have more important goals: to
change society’s attitude towards people with disabilities.
See you in Sochi in 2014…