The Paralympics

The Summer and Winter Olympic Games receive overwhelming coverage and attention. The Paralympics, on the other hand, are perhaps a lesser-known event that also happens every four years, immediately following the Olympic Games. These games are sometimes confused with the Special Olympics World Games, but there is a distinct difference: the Paralympics are designated for athletes with mobility disabilities, whereas the Special Olympics are designated for athletes only with intellectual disabilities.

In the Paralympics, physical disabilities are categorized into six types, as stated on the Paralympics Movement Web site: amputation, Cerebral Palsy, visual impairment, spinal injury, intellectual disability and another group that includes all other disabled athletes.

Athletes compete in 20 sports in the Summer Paralympics, including such sports as archery, cycling, sailing, swimming, and wheelchair basketball, rugby, fencing and volleyball. There are five sports offered during the Winter Paralympics: alpine skiing, ice hockey, wheelchair curling, biathlon and cross country skiing.

The International Paralympic Committee currently organizes the Summer and Winter Games and was founded in 1989. The idea behind the Paralympic Games, though, began in England in 1948 when Ludwig Guttmann organized a sports competition for veterans of WWII that had spinal injuries. Athletes from the Netherlands got wind of the competition and joined the games in 1952. The first official Paralympic Games were held in 1960 in Rome, Italy. There were 400 athletes from 23 countries. The first Winter Paralympic Games were held 16 years later in 1976 in Sweden and hosted over 250 athletes from 17 countries.

Like the Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games also have a torch relay leading up to the games. The relay started in Seoul, Korea, in 1988 and boasted 282 torchbearers (111 of which had a physical disability) on a route of 105 kilometers. At the most recent Paralympic Games in Beijing, China, there were 850 torchbearers, of which 170 had a disability. There were two different routes totaling 13,181km and the entire relay took nine days to complete.

Surely many people have heard of the Paralympic Games, but why do these games receive so little attention and media coverage relative to the Olympic Games?  At the Beijing Paralympics, nearly 4,000 athletes from 146 countries participated, proving its popularity and loyal support.  We get so caught up in our well-known Olypmic celebrity athletes that we forget to stay tuned for the upcoming Paralympics.  This doesn't make sense to me.  It is amazing to watch Lindsey Vonn, for example, race down a mountain on skis.  But it is even more incredible and inspiring to watch a physically disabled athlete do the same thing.  Vonn spent most of these past Winter Olympics complaining about her injured shin.  I wonder what a Paralympic downhill skier would complain about? 

Hopefully that rhetorical question does not come off as callous - that is not how I meant it.  I just want to emphasize how these Paralympic Games really put things in perspective.  We have so many incredible athletes that not only overcome the obstacles territorial to any sport, but also athletes that overcome significant physical disabilities to compete in their passion.  It is truly inspiring and deserving of some more attention from our global society.