Summer Paralympic Games

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The **Summer Paralympics**, also known as the **Games of the Paralympiad**, are an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy. The Paralympic Games are held every four years, organized by the International Paralympic Committee. Medals are awarded in each event, with gold medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, a tradition that the Olympic Games started in 1904.

The United States, the United Kingdom and Japan have each hosted the Summer Paralympic Games twice. Another eleven countries hosted the summer Paralympics are Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Greece, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain and West Germany.

Thirteen countries — Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, United States — have been represented at all Summer Paralympic Games. Seven of those countries have won at least one gold medal at every Summer Paralympic Games: Australia, Austria, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United States.

The United States has been the top-ranking (medals) nation for eight Paralympic Summer Games: 1964, 1968, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996. China have been the top-ranking nation for the fifth most recent Games, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020. Italy (1960), West Germany (1972) and Australia (2000) have been the top-ranking nation one time each.

## Qualification

Qualification rules for each of the Paralympic sports are set by the International Federation (IF) that governs that sport's international competition.

## Historically

The first official Paralympic Games was held in Rome, Italy, in 1960. 400 athletes from 23 countries competed at the 1960 Games though only athletes in wheelchairs competed.

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 were the first to be hosted in the same venues (and thus use the same facilities) as the Olympics of that year. Since then, all Paralympic Games are now held in the same city that hosted the Olympics, with a two-week gap between each.

Rio de Janeiro held the 2016 Summer Paralympics, becoming the first Latin American and South American city to host either the Summer or Winter Games. Tokyo hosted the 2020 Summer Paralympics which made it the first city to host the games twice.

## See also

* All-time Paralympic Games medal count
* Cheating at the Paralympic Games
* Winter Paralympic Games
* Multi-sport event
* Summer Olympic Games

## External links

* Official Site of the Paralympic Movement

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1. ↑ "Paralympics traces roots to Second World War", CBC, September 3, 2008
2. ↑ Template:Cite web