The 13th Paralympic Games In Beijing

From September 6th to September 17th, just a few weeks after the Olympic Games, the 13th Paralympic Games will take place in Beijing as well. Since 1988 the Paralympic Games always take place in the same host city as the Olympic Games. An agreement between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) which was settled in June 1991, officially stipulates that all Paralympics have to take place at the same venues as the Olympic Games as of 1992.

At the beginning this did not always work, as politically and financially interests were opposed to this. The United States lead the rank of disgrace after they refused to organize the Paralympics in 1984 because they feared image damage. The organizers of the 1996 Olympic Games let demount the facilities right after the Games so the Paralympics athletes had to absolve their competitions almost in ruins. As only US-American community could call themselves proud are the citizens from Long Island Hempstead who collected together with the Hofstra University within two hours funds to organize one part of the Paralympics 1984.

With more than 4,000 athletes from over 135 nations the Paralympic Games are the second biggest sporting event worldwide. Since 1960 the amount of participants has increased from 400 athletes from 23 nations to 3,806 athletes from 136 nations in Athens 2004. One of the biggest participating team is the German sports federation for the disabled. At the 2004 Games in Athens the German Paralympics team achieved the eighth place in the nations valuation.

The term Paralympics was originally a composition from the English words Paraplegic and Olympics. Also, to include people with other disabilities, the term was newly defined and now composed of the Greek word Para and the English word Olympics. A literally translation would be Sub-Olympics. It supposed to express the coexistence of the games.

The first sports games for wheelchair users were initiated in 1948 by Ludwig Guttmann of German descent who originated methods in therapy of paraplegics. He was able to get the interest in his project from some English veterans with spinal cord damages from the Second World War. For his engagement he received high English and international honor. Four years later the project attracted more and more people from different countries so the games gained international reputation.

The first games for people with disabilities in Olympic style were organized in 1960 in Rome. Since the first games for people with disabilities took place in Stoke Mandeville, England, these games were officially called the 9th Annual International Stoke Mandeville Games, but are considered as the first Paralympic Games. The first Winter-Paralympics were held 16 years later in Sweden. 1976 was also the first year in which not only paralyzed people could participate but also amputees and visually impaired people.

Responsible for the organization of the Paralympic games is the International Paralympic Committee (IPO). It was founded in 1989 and with 153 member nations it has its office in Bonn, Germany. At the Paralympics 2004 there were no people with mental handicaps permitted since the Spanish basketball team reported with mostly non physical handicapped people at the past Paralympics. This way they had yielded an advantage for themselves and won the title. Next year for the games in Beijing the IPO barred people with mental handicaps will also participate.

On August 28th the Paralympic torch will be inflamed directly in Beijing with he existing flames from the Olympic Games. In 10 days three different torches will go different ways. On the first route all the future paralympic cities will be crossed. From Beijing (Paralympics 2008) it goes first to Vancouver (2010), London (2012), Sochi (2014) and then to Hong Kong (Co-Host 2008). The other two routes will be the Modern China and Ancient China which pass only through China. All three flames will meet finally at the opening ceremony in Beijing on September 6th 2008.



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About the Author:
About the Author:
Emeli Dean is a high-ranking writer on sports for the sports betting industry.
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