The Paralympics have grown from a small gathering of British World War II veterans in 1948 to become one of the largest international sport events by the early 21st century. Paralympians strive for equal treatment with non-disabled Olympic athletes, but there is a large funding gap between Olympic and Paralympic athletes. There are also sports, such as track and field athletics, that are resistant to Paralympians who wish to compete equally with non-disabled athletes, though there have been Paralympians who have participated in the Olympic Games.
The Paralympic Games include athletes with physical disabilities, and are run in parallel with the Olympic Games.
The present formal explanation for the name "Paralympic" is that it derives from the Greek preposition παρά, pará ("beside" or "alongside") and thus refers to a competition held in parallel with the Olympic Games. The Summer Games of 1988 held in Seoul was the first time the term "Paralympic" came into official use.
Given the wide variety of disabilities that paralympic athletes have, there are several categories in which the athletes compete. The allowable disabilities are broken down into six broad categories. The categories are amputee, Cerebral Palsy, intellectual disability, wheelchair, visually impaired, and Les Autres (literally "The Others", which are athletes with disabilities that don't fall into the other five categories; these include dwarfism, multiple sclerosis, and congenital deformities). These categories are further broken down into classifications, which vary from sport to sport. The classification system has led to cheating controversies revolving around athletes who over-stated their disabilities in addition to the use of performance-enhancing drugs seen in other events.
Relationship with the Olympics
In 2001 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) signed an agreement which guaranteed that host cities would be contracted to manage both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This agreement will remain in effect until the 2012 Summer Olympics. The agreement will be extended to the 2014 Winter Olympics and 2016 Summer Olympics.
The IOC has written its commitment to equal access to athletics for all people into its charter, which states,
“The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practising sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play....Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.”
While the Charter is silent on discrimination specifically related to disability; given the language in the Charter regarding discrimination it is reasonable to infer that discrimination on the basis of disability would be against the ideals of the Olympic Charter and the IOC. This is also consistent with the Paralympic Charter, which forbids discrimination on the basis of political, religious, economic, disability, gender, sexual orientation or racial reasons.[32]
Chairman of the London organising committee, Lord Coe, said about the 2012 Summer Paralympics and 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England, that
“We want to change public attitudes towards disability, celebrate the excellence of Paralympic sport and to enshrine from the very outset that the two Games are an integrated whole”
