What is the difference between Paralympics and Special Olympics?
(Class 11 Physical Education - Olympic Value Education)
Answers
1) the impairment categories of the athletes that they work with
2) the criteria under which athletes participate
3) the structure of their respective organisations.
The Paralympics, as the largest sports competition for athletes with an impairment worldwide, involve athletes from several impairment categories. The six main disability categories are: amputee, cerebral palsy, intellectual impairment, visually impaired, spinal injuries and Les Autres (French for "the others", a category that includes conditions that do not fall into the categories mentioned before). In contrast, the Special Olympics are solely for athletes with intellectual impairment.
To participate in the Paralympic Games, athletes have to fulfil certain criteria and meet certain qualifying standards in order to be eligible. These criteria and standards are sports-specific and are determined by the IPC Sports Chairpersons, the Sports Technical Delegates and the relevant international sports organizations.
The Paralympics are about elite performance sport, where athletes go through a stringent qualification process so that the best can compete at the Games.
On the other hand, the Special Olympics does not make as clear a distinction between elite and recreational sport as the Paralympics. No qualifying events are held and there is instead a system of random selection of participants for the Special Olympics. Thus, while the Paralympics emphasises high-level performance, the Special Olympics emphasises participation from those who can and will.
The Paralympics are run by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). As the international representative organization of sport for athletes with a disability, the IPC comprises elected representatives from around the world. The General Assembly, its highest decision-making body, includes around 160 member nations, represented through their National Paralympic Committees, and five disability-specific organizations. The Special Olympics are run by Special Olympics International (SOI). SOI has established national foundations around the world, which are financed mainly through charity."
Hope this will help you ..
★ Solution :-
• About Paralympics ::
Paralympics games is a major international sport game which involves atheletes of the world with a wide range of disabilities. These disabilities are muscle impowerment, mascular distrophy, post - polio syndrome, leg length difference, short structure, limb deficiency, vision impairment, hypertonia, amputation, dysmelia, paraplegia, quadriplegia, etc.
The main concept is that Paralympics include events and contestants with intellectual disabilities. The first Paralympics Games was held in Rome in 1968. Currently, the head quarter of Paralympics Games is at Bonn, Germany.
Some of the greatest Indian contestants in Paralympic Games are Deepa Malik, Devendra Jhajhariya, Varun Bhatti, Mariyappam Thagavelu who won prizes in disciplines like Shot Put, Javelin Throw and High Jumps respectively. As per the given varieties of disabilities, the atheletes compete in several disciplines. The games are grouped and broken into several events to compete. Globally, the Paralympics Games are governed by an international body called International Paralympics Committee.
• About Special Olympics ::
Special Olympics games were started by Eunice Kennedy Shriver who is the sister of former president of USA that is John F. Kennedy. Actually Special Olympics is based on the idea of equal opportunities. Shriver got up this idea on seeing the conditions of Physically Disabled people who were excluded socially and the ones with intellectual disabilities were treated just as formalty and like things not as humans in different institutions. She herself understood and and made others to understand that children with disabilities can perform much better when they are given equal opportunities. Even this is one of the major aims of Special Olympics. It was made to make physically challenged persons realise their true potential and perfom well in the fields of sports.
The first Special Olympics Games were held in July, 1968 at Chicago, USA. The idea of Special Olympics is the revive the lifes of physically challenged children using sports. It givesn efficient trainings to such contestants who are physically challenged to compete, provides different platforms for competition, gives funds and resources to the institutions to conduct competitions at junior levels and high levels. It helps the physically challenged contestants to build a good coordination skill, communication skill, leadership qualities, techniques and strategies in games, etc.
Special Olympics include games of many disciplines. Eventually it conducts competitions related to each and every disabilities like vision impairment, deaf problems, physical problems, etc.
In general Paralympics and Deaflympics work parallelely under the institution of Special Olympics.
Both aim to remove exclusion of physically challenged from the society that is they aim at the principal of inclusion.
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★ More to know :-
• Deaflympics :: These are the Olympic games which are conducted only for the deaf atheletes.
• Inclusion Principal :: This principal means being a part of something which is a larger group.
• Need for inclusion ::
- Inclusion is essential to accommodate people with disabilities with society.
- It helps to provide equal opportunities to every kind of people.
- It aims children to learn and grow together irrespective of their physical disabilities.