The Paralympic games are an international sporting event that is the equivalent to the well known Olympic games. The primary difference is that the athletes involved in this multi-sport event have differing levels of physical functionality. The disabilities the athletes in this event might have range anywhere can be anything from cerebral palsy to being blind or even an amputee. The games began in 1948 with a small group of British World War II veterans and has grown considerably since then.
The Paralympic games derive their name from the Greek word para which means "alongside". They are held alongside the traditional Olympic games. The athletes participating in these games are broken down into six broad categories. These categories are amputee, cerebral palsy, wheelchair, intellectual disability, visually impaired, and les autres. The latter category includes a wide variety of athletes with differing capacities that are difficult to standardize such as dwarfism and congenital deformities. Each of these categories will then be further broken down into specific classifications for each individual sporting event.
The very first Paralympic games that included athletes that were not war veterans was held in 1960 and only open to athletes confined to wheelchairs. The present day games continue to run alongside the Olympic games. The Paralympics are held in the same facilities and in the same host city as the Olympics. This has lead to the further advancement of disabled athletes in the world and allowed knowledge of the potential of the human spirit to overcome adversity to grow and change the world.
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