Paralympics Making Disabled Fit And Able

Paralympics is an Olympic Game conducted for disabled people. Here para stands for parallel (equal to) and not paraplegic as thought by many people. Understand all about it in the following blog:

Paralympics competition is conducted in summer and winter in the same competitive venues with similar competitive structures as the Olympics.

In 1948, this competition was a therapy conducted by doctors for wheelchair patients but later created the International Stoke Mandeville Games Committee.

In 1960, the first official competition of Paralympics happened. 400 athletes from 23 nations participated and competed in it.

• Paralympics are either a traditional individual or team Olympic, sports like Boccia, a competition where vision-impaired athletes react to the sound of a ball being directed toward an opponent’s goal.

• IPC developed rules regarding how athletes would be classified in each sport because of unique disabilities.

• There are six general areas of classification, described below:

a. Amputees: An amputee will compete using a wheelchair because of minimum one major joint in a limb removed.

b. Cerebral Palsy: It refers to athletes who suffer from one of a group of motor disorders that impair movement and motor control generally compete in wheelchairs.

c. Vision impaired: It classifies athletes with all manner of sight limitations ranges from minimal to 100% blindness.

d. Spinal Cord Injuries: Paraplegia and quadriplegia are the most common conditions where the spinal cord has been damaged to limit movement in arms, legs or both.

e. Intellectual disability: Athletes who age above 18 have either lower functioning mental abilities or suffer from a specific limiting disability. Here they are assessed through the determination of several factors considered as a whole.

Amongst others, Dwarfism is an example where athletes are disabled but not fit in any of the above five conditions.