The Paralympic Games is an international sports competition for people with disabilities, that is, disabled people. They are held after the main Olympic Games, at the same venues where the Olympic athletes competed. This procedure was unofficially introduced since the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and in 2001 it was enshrined in an agreement between the IOC and the IPC.
The Paralympic Games pursue several goals at once, the main one of which is to prove that people with disabilities, if they wish and diligence, can return to a full and successful life. The idea that people with disabilities can play sports belonged to Ludwig Gutman, a neurosurgeon at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, England, where WWII veterans were treated. He actively introduced sports in the treatment process, proving in practice that it is useful for patients not only in the physical, but also in the psychological sense.
The first Stoke Mandeville wheelchair archery event was held on July 28, 1948. They coincided in time with the London Olympics. Then they began to be held annually, and since 1952, when wheelchair users from the Netherlands also took part in the competition, they received international status.
In 1960, the IX Stoke Mandeville Games, held not only for war veterans, were held in Rome. They got an unprecedented scale: 400 wheelchair athletes from 23 countries competed. And from the next Olympics, held in 1964 in Tokyo, they received the unofficial name "Paralympic Games". At the same time, the anthem of these competitions was first sung and the flag was raised.
The term "Paralympic" was a symbiosis of two concepts: "paralysis" and "couple" (translated from Greek - "near", "near"). That is, as it were, it was emphasized that these are sports competitions for the disabled, held in the spirit of the Olympic ideals. The term "Paralympic" was finally adopted in 1988, when the Summer Olympics were held in Seoul. Disabled athletes competed at the same venues as the participants in the recently ended Olympics. It was deeply symbolic and made a great impression on the audience. And in 2001, this practice was officially formalized by a joint decision of the IOC and the IPC.
