Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow. The Paralympic Game 1 You may have heard of the Olympic Games,but have you heard of the Paralympic Games? This international tournament is just like the Olympic. Athletes from all over the world compete against each other in athletics ,swimming ,cycling ,shooting and eighteen other games.The athletes at the Paralympics have a range of physical disabilities . Some of them do not have arms or legs and some others cannot see. However,these athletes are determined to turn their disability into ability -something that can win them medals and do their nations proud. 2 The Paralympic Games were first conducted in 1948 in London . It was for British soldiers who had been injured during World War II . These first games were called the Wheelchair Games - they were a big success. The soldiers , who had thought that they would never be able to take part in sports again, got a chance to play and win . 3 Since then, the Paralympic Games have grown . Today , over 3900 athletes from di146 countries participate in them. Every four years,when the Olympics are held , the Paralympics are held too. India took part in the Paralympic Games for the first time in 1968 . Murlikant Petkar gave India its first gold medal in the Games in 1972. Petkar had been a soldier in the Indian army. He had been seriously injured by gunfire during a war but ,Petkar did not give up on his love for sports. He took up swimming and won gold medal in the 50m race.Petkar’s win inspired many others with disabilities and now , India takes part regularly in the Paralympic Games. please answer 1' to be involved , take part ( para 3 ) 2'having made a firm decision ( para 1)
Answers
The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, is a periodic series of international multi-sport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power (e.g. paraplegia and quadriplegia, muscular dystrophy, post-polio syndrome, spina bifida), impaired passive range of movement, limb deficiency (e.g. amputation or Dysmelia), leg length difference, short stature, hypertonia, ataxia, athetosis, vision impairment and intellectual impairment. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, are held almost immediately following the respective Olympic Games. All Paralympic Games are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
The Paralympics has grown from a small gathering of British World War II veterans in 1948 to become one of the largest international sporting events by the early 21st century. The Paralympics has grown from 400 athletes with a disability from 23 countries in 1960 to thousands of competitors from over 100 countries at the 2012 Summer Paralympics.[1] Paralympians strive for equal treatment with non-disabled Olympic athletes, but there is a large funding gap between Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
The Paralympic Games are organized in parallel with the Olympic Games, while the IOC-recognized Special Olympics World Games include athletes with intellectual disabilities, and the Deaflympics include deaf athletes.[2][3]
Given the wide variety of disabilities that Para athletes have, there are several categories in which the athletes compete. The allowable disabilities are broken down into ten eligible impairment types. The categories are impaired muscle power, impaired passive range of movement, limb deficiency, leg length difference, short stature, hypertonia, ataxia, athetosis, vision impairment and intellectual impairment.[4] These categories are further broken down into classifications, which vary from sport to sport.
Contents
1 Forerunners
2 Milestones
3 Winter Games
4 International Paralympic Committee
5 Name and symbols
6 Ceremonies
6.1 Opening
6.2 Closing
6.3 Medal presentation
7 Equality
7.1 Relationship with the Olympics
7.1.1 Paralympians at the Olympics
7.1.2 Funding
7.2 Media coverage
7.3 Outside the games
8 Classification
8.1 Categories
8.2 Classification system
8.2.1 Medical classification (until 1980s)
8.2.2 Functional classification (since 1980s)
9 Sports
10 Cheating
11 Notable champions and achievements
12 Host cities
13 See also
14 Notes
15 References
16 Further reading
17 External links
Forerunners
Further information: World Wheelchair and Amputee Games
Sir Ludwig Guttmann
Athletes with disabilities did compete at the Olympic Games prior to the advent of the Paralympics. The first athlete to do so was German American gymnast George Eyser in 1904, who had one artificial leg. Hungarian Karoly Takacs competed in shooting events in both the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics. He was a right-arm amputee and could shoot left-handed. Another disabled athlete to appear in the Olympics prior to the Paralympic Games was Lis Hartel, a Danish equestrian athlete who had contracted polio in 1943 and won a silver medal in the dressage event.[5]
The first organized athletic event for disabled athletes that coincided with the Olympic Games took place on the day of the opening of the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. Jewish-German born Dr. Ludwig Guttmann of Stoke Mandeville Hospital,[6] who had been helped to flee Nazi Germany by the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA) in 1939,[7] hosted a sports competition for British World War II veteran patients with spinal cord injuries. The first games were called the 1948 International Wheelchair Games, and were intended to coincide with the 1948 Olympics.[8] Guttman's aim was to create an elite sports competition for people with disabilities that would be equivalent to the Olympic Games. The games were held again at the same location in 1952, and Dutch and Israeli veterans took part alongside the British, making it the first international competition of its own kind. These early competitions, also known as the Stoke Mandeville Games, have been described as the precursors of the Paralympic Games, and Stoke Mandeville holds a similar place in the lore of the Paralympic movement as Greece holds in the Olympic.
Explanation:
which athletes participate in the paralympic games