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Danish Paralympic logo - Sydney 2000

Paralympic Games - Sydney 2000
18.-29. October, Sydney, Australia

Paralympic Games - the idea What is the background to the Paralympic Games? The event was created by Sir Ludwig Guttman, the 'father' of sport for people with a disability. While working with ex-servicemen at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital after WWII, Guttman recognised the need for competition and staged the 1948 International Wheelchair Games to coincide with the 1948 London Olympic Games. The event grew, gradually encompassing other sports and other disability categories, and in 1960 the first Paralympic Games was held in Rome.They have been held every four years since in tandem with the Olympic Games. Although the Paralympic Games is a much younger movement than the Olympic Games, it is growing dramatically. The word 'Paralympic' comes from the word 'parallel'. It means the Games 'parallel' to the Olympic Games, being the key international competition for athletes with a disability just as the Olympics is for able-bodied athletes. The Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games is expecting 4000 athletes from 125 countries to compete in 18 sports. Six disability categories will be represented. For the ten previous Games held before Sydney 2000, the Paralympic host city has been the same as the Olympic venue on five occasions: Rome 1960, Tokyo 1964, Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996. There is no contract binding the two Games to the same city. However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), based in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), based in Bonn, Germany, have an agreement to try to stage both the Winter and Summer Games in the same location to take advantage of the technology, venues and facilities for both.

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