50 Fun Facts About The Paralympics

Since 1988, when are the Paralympics held relative to the Olympics?

Since the 1988 Summer Games the Paralympics have followed the Olympics in the same host city, opening shortly after them; London 2012's Paralympics opened 17 days after the Olympic closing ceremony.

The 1948 competition that grew into the Paralympics was for British war veterans with what kind of injury?

Spinal cord injuries: Guttmann directed the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, and the 1948 games were an archery contest between 16 paraplegic ex-servicemen and women.

Which German-Jewish neurologist, a refugee from Nazi Germany, founded the games at Stoke Mandeville Hospital?

Ludwig Guttmann, a neurologist who fled Breslau for Britain in 1939, was knighted in 1966; after Kristallnacht in 1938 he admitted 64 Jewish men to his hospital and talked the Gestapo out of deporting 60 of them.

The first Stoke Mandeville Games were held on 29 July 1948, the same day as what?

The opening of the London Olympics: the first Stoke Mandeville Games took place on 29 July 1948, the day the 1948 Olympic Games opened at Wembley Stadium, and Guttmann wanted a disabled equivalent of the Olympics.

In which city were the first official Paralympic Games held in 1960?

Rome staged the first Paralympics from 18 to 25 September 1960; they doubled as the ninth International Stoke Mandeville Games and were backed by INAIL, Italy's workers' accident insurance institute.

How many athletes competed at the 1960 Rome Paralympics?

The IPC's official figure for Rome 1960 is 400 athletes from 23 countries, all of them wheelchair users with spinal cord injuries.

Which Italian doctor, a friend and follower of Guttmann, proposed staging the 1960 Games in Rome?

Antonio Maglio, director of INAIL's spinal unit at Ostia near Rome, persuaded Guttmann to hold the 1960 International Stoke Mandeville Games in Rome, making them the first Paralympics.

Which sport was on the programme of the 1960 Rome Paralympics?

Dartchery, a hybrid of darts and archery shot with a bow at a dartboard-style target, was one of eight sports at Rome 1960 alongside snooker, wheelchair fencing and table tennis.

The name 'Paralympic' was originally a portmanteau of 'Olympic' and which word?

Paraplegic: the name began as a blend of 'paraplegic' and 'Olympic'; once other disability groups joined, the official explanation switched to the Greek 'pará', meaning beside or alongside.

The term 'Paralympic' first came into official use at the 1988 Games in which city?

Seoul 1988 was the first Games officially called the Paralympics, and the first since Tokyo 1964 to be held in the Olympic host city, using the same venues.

At which Summer Paralympics were athletes with disabilities other than spinal injuries included for the first time?

Toronto 1976 was the first Summer Paralympics to admit amputees and visually impaired athletes alongside those with spinal cord injuries, with about 1,600 competitors from 40 countries.

Where were the first Winter Paralympics held in 1976?

Örnsköldsvik, Sweden hosted the first Winter Paralympics in February 1976, with Alpine and Nordic skiing for amputee and visually impaired athletes plus a demonstration of ice sledge racing.

In which German city was the International Paralympic Committee founded on 22 September 1989?

The IPC was founded in Düsseldorf on 22 September 1989, replacing the International Co-ordinating Committee, with Canadian Robert Steadward as its first president.

Where has the International Paralympic Committee been headquartered since 1999?

Bonn, Germany has housed the International Paralympic Committee's headquarters since 1999, when the committee moved there from Bruges in Belgium.

What is the Latin-derived name for the three asymmetrical crescents in the Paralympic symbol?

Agitos, from the Latin 'agito' ('I move'), are the three asymmetrical crescents in red, blue and green, the colours most widely used in national flags.

The first IPC logo, created for the 1988 Games, was based on which traditional Korean decorative element?

Two pas make up the taegeuk on South Korea's flag; the IOC asked for a redesign in 1991 because five of them looked too like its own emblem.

Which motto did the Paralympic movement adopt in 2019?

'Change Starts with Sport' became the Paralympic motto in 2019, replacing 'Spirit in Motion', which had been introduced for Athens 2004.

What is the title of the Paralympic anthem, adopted in 1996?

'Hymne de l'Avenir' (Anthem of the Future), composed by Thierry Darnis, was approved as the Paralympic anthem in March 1996; Australian Graeme Connors wrote lyrics for it in 2001.

Which single language is the official language of the Paralympic movement?

English is the International Paralympic Committee's sole official language; Games announcements are made in English plus the host country's official languages, whereas the IOC also uses French.

How many eligible impairment types does the IPC recognise for Paralympic competition?

Ten: impaired muscle power, impaired passive range of movement, limb deficiency, leg length difference, short stature, hypertonia, ataxia, athetosis, vision impairment and intellectual impairment.

Which blind American swimmer won 55 Paralympic medals between 1980 and 2004?

Trischa Zorn, blind since birth, won 55 Paralympic swimming medals, 41 of them gold, across seven Games from Arnhem 1980 to Athens 2004.

Which Norwegian won 22 Winter Paralympic medals between 1988 and 2002?

Ragnhild Myklebust won 22 Winter Paralympic medals, 17 of them gold, in cross-country skiing, biathlon and ice sledge racing, taking five golds at Salt Lake City 2002 aged 58 before retiring.

Which country's intellectual-disability basketball team was stripped of its 2000 gold after most players were found not to be disabled?

Spain's team was stripped of the Sydney 2000 gold after journalist-player Carlos Ribagorda revealed that ten of the twelve had no intellectual disability; ID events were dropped until London 2012.

'Boosting', a banned technique in Paralympic sport, involves athletes deliberately doing what?

Trauma below a spinal injury is painless but can lift performance by up to 15%, especially in endurance events.

Which American gymnast competed at the 1904 Olympics with a wooden leg?

George Eyser, who lost his left leg after being run over by a train, won six gymnastics medals (three gold) at the St. Louis 1904 Olympics competing on a wooden prosthesis.

Which paraplegic New Zealand archer competed at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics?

Neroli Fairhall, paralysed in a motorcycle accident, shot from her wheelchair at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics, the first paraplegic athlete to compete at an Olympic Games, four years after winning Paralympic gold at Arnhem.

By how much did Oscar Pistorius miss qualifying for the 2008 Olympic 400 metres?

0.70 seconds: Pistorius's 2008 best of 46.25 was 0.70 short of the 45.55 Olympic 'A' standard; he won Beijing Paralympic gold at 100, 200 and 400 m instead and reached the London 2012 Olympic 400 m semi-final.

Which company manufactured the carbon-fibre 'Flex-Foot Cheetah' blades Oscar Pistorius raced on?

Össur, the Icelandic prosthetics maker, produced the Flex-Foot Cheetah, a J-shaped carbon-fibre blade invented by American engineer Van Phillips, whose company Össur bought in 2000.

Which two Paralympic sports have no counterpart on the Olympic programme?

Boccia and goalball are the only two Paralympic sports without an Olympic equivalent; boccia is a precision ball game akin to bowls, and goalball is a three-a-side game on a volleyball-sized court.

Boccia was originally designed for people with which condition?

Cerebral palsy: boccia was adapted for athletes with cerebral palsy and entered the Paralympics in 1984; players throw or roll red or blue leather balls towards a white jack.

How do goalball players judge the position of the ball?

The ball has bells inside it: players, all wearing blackout eyeshades so blind and partially sighted athletes compete equally, track it by sound, and the arena must stay silent while it is in play.

Goalball was devised in 1946 by an Austrian and a German as a rehabilitation exercise for whom?

Blinded war veterans: Austrian Hanz Lorenzen and German Sepp Reindle created goalball in 1946 to rehabilitate soldiers blinded in the Second World War; it became a full Paralympic sport in 1976 after a 1972 Heidelberg demonstration.

By what violent-sounding name was wheelchair rugby originally known?

Murderball was the name five Canadian wheelchair athletes gave the game they invented in 1976 for players with tetraplegia, blending rules from basketball, ice hockey, handball and rugby; the 2005 documentary Murderball later revived the name.

In which Canadian city was wheelchair rugby created in 1976?

Winnipeg: five Manitoba wheelchair athletes, among them Duncan Campbell, devised the game there in 1976 because wheelchair basketball demanded too much arm and hand function for players with tetraplegia.

Sitting volleyball was invented in 1956 as a rehabilitation sport for injured soldiers in which country?

The Netherlands: the Dutch Sports Committee created sitting volleyball in 1956 by combining volleyball with sitzball, a German seated game without a net; it became a Paralympic medal sport at Arnhem 1980.

How many Paralympic medals did Welsh wheelchair racer Tanni Grey-Thompson win, including 11 golds?

She also won the London Marathon six times and set more than 30 world records before entering the House of Lords.

How many times did Tanni Grey-Thompson win the London Marathon between 1992 and 2002?

Six: Tanni Grey-Thompson won the London Marathon wheelchair race in 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2001 and 2002.

Which UK broadcaster took over Paralympic television rights from London 2012 with the acclaimed 'Meet the Superhumans' trailer?

Channel 4 took the rights from the BBC for London 2012, launching its coverage with the 'Meet the Superhumans' trailer made by its in-house agency 4creative, and followed it with 'We're the Superhumans' for Rio 2016.

By 8 August 2012, how many tickets had London sold for its Paralympics, beating Beijing's record?

2,100,000: by 8 August 2012 London had sold 2.1 million Paralympic tickets, passing Beijing 2008's total of 1.8 million; final sales reached about 2.7 million, the first Paralympic sell-out.

Which sport made its Paralympic debut at Tokyo 2020 alongside taekwondo?

Badminton joined the Paralympic programme at Tokyo 2020 (held in 2021) together with taekwondo, while para canoe and triathlon had debuted at Rio 2016.

Which was the first Winter Paralympics staged two years apart from the Summer Games?

Lillehammer 1994 was the first Winter Paralympics held in a different year from the Summer Games, after the IOC moved the Winter Olympics onto their own four-year cycle beginning in 1994.

In 2018 the IOC and IPC extended their agreement to stage the two Games together until which year?

2032: in March 2018 the IOC and IPC extended their cooperation agreement, which obliges Olympic host cities to stage the Paralympics as well, through the 2032 Games.

Which Paralympics were the first to be webcast, reaching a TV audience of about 300 million?

Sydney 2000 drew a cumulative television audience of about 300 million and was the first Paralympics to be webcast, streamed by the US company WeMedia.

Which multi-sport event, first held in Paris in 1924, is for athletes with hearing loss?

The Deaflympics began as the International Silent Games in Paris in 1924 and were renamed the Deaflympics in 2001; competitors must have a hearing loss of at least 55 decibels in their better ear.

Under IPC advertising rules, what tattoo did Paralympic athletes once have to cover in competition?

The Olympic rings: the IPC classed the Olympic symbol as third-party branding under its advertising rules, so athletes taped over rings tattoos, as Britain's Josef Craig found in 2016 when he was disqualified for an uncovered one.

Which country's Paralympians won the most medals at Vancouver 2010 while its Olympians badly underperformed?

Russia topped the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic table by total medals with 38, although Germany won more golds, weeks after Russia's Olympic team managed only three gold medals.

Which Danish rider, who had polio, won Olympic dressage silver in 1952?

Lis Hartel, paralysed below the knees by polio in 1944 and lifted on and off her horse, won dressage silver on Jubilee at Helsinki 1952 and again at Stockholm 1956.

Which country hosted the 1968 Summer Paralympics after Mexico City declined?

Israel staged the 1968 Summer Paralympics at Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv in November 1968 after Olympic host Mexico withdrew citing technical difficulties; it was the first Paralympics held outside the Olympic host country.

How many sports were on the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic programme?

22 sports, from para archery to wheelchair tennis, made up the Paris 2024 Paralympic programme, the same number as Tokyo 2020, with 549 medal events.

Where was the Paralympic flame for Paris 2024 lit?

Stoke Mandeville, birthplace of the Paralympic movement, hosted the lighting of the Paris 2024 flame on 24 August 2024; 24 British Paralympians then carried it through the Channel Tunnel to France.