The Ultimate Paralympic Games - American History Information Guide and Reference

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The Paralympic Games are an official equivalent of the Olympics for athletes with physical disabilities. This includes mobility disabilities, amputees, visual disabilities and those with Cerebral Palsy. It is different from the Special Olympics.

Sir Ludwig Guttmann organized a sports competition in 1948 which became known as the Stoke Mandeville Games, involving World War II veterans with spinal cord injuries; in 1952 competitors from the Netherlands took part in the competition, giving an international notion to the movement. The first Olympic Style games for athletes with a disability were held in Rome in 1960 which became the Paralympic Games. The first Winter Paralympics were held in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden in 1976. The Games are now always held alongside the Olympic Games as of June 19, 2001 when an agreement was signed between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) securing this practice for the future.

In the 1996 Atlanta games athletes with intellectual disabilities were allowed to participate for the first time. However following cheating by the International Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability (INAS-FID) in the 2000 Sydney games, in which non-disabled athletes were entered in the Spanish basketball team, such athletes have been banned by the IPC. Following an anti-corruption drive the INAS-FID is currently lobbying to have such athletes reinstated.

The IPC logo consisted on three Agitos . The new Paralympic logo consists of three elements in red, blue and green—the three colours that are most widely represented in national flags around the world. The IPC motto is the ´´Spirit in Motion´´.

The name derives from the Greek "para" ("beside" or "alongside"), and bears no relation to paralysis or paraplegia.

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