The Paralympic Games involves athletes with range of various disabilities including impaired muscle, Limb deficiency, leg length difference, hypotonia ,vision impairment ,intellectual impairment, etc. Like Olympic games, Paralympic Games also include winter Paralympic Games and summer Paralympic Games. The Paralympic Games are governed by International Paralympic Committee. The Paralympic Games are held immediately after Olympic games since 1988.
The History Of Paralympic Games
The Paralympic Games was started from a small gathering of World War 2 British veterans in 1948 and now has become one of the largest International sport event. In the Paralympic Games over 400 athletes take part from 23 different countries.
What’s special this time around?
The 2020 summer Paralympic games will be held in Tokyo, Japan. The 2020 Summer Paralympic Games will be the 16th summer Paralympic Games which are scheduled to take place between 24 August and 5 September 2021. Formally they were scheduled to take place between 25 August 26 September 2020 but due to Kuwait pandemic the IOC and the Tokyo organizing committee officially shifted the the 2020 Tokyo summer Paralympic games to next year.
Tokyo will be hosting the Paralympic Games for the second time. Paralympic Games in Tokyo were held in 1964 for the first time along with the summer Olympic games. Badminton and Taekwondo are introduced in the 2020 Paralympic Games. 7 a side football and sailing have been kept out.
540 events in 22 sports will take place in 2020 Paralympic Games. Cycling events will be split into road and track disciplines. Team events of goalball, sitting volleyball, and wheelchair basketball continue as men’s and women’s events, wheelchair rugby continues to be a mixed event, while 5-a-side-football will only be open to male competitors. New events and classifications have also been added or realigned in other sports.
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Here’s the list of sports that will be the part of Paralympic Games 2020
- Archery (9)
- Athletics (168)
- Badminton (14)
- Boccia (7)
- Cycling(51)
- Road (34)
- Track (17)
- Equestrian (11)
- Football 5-a-side (1)
- Goalball (2)
- Judo (13)
- Paracanoe (9)
- Paratriathlon (8)
- Powerlifting (20)
- Rowing (4)
- Shooting (13)
- Sitting volleyball (2)
- Swimming (146)
- Table tennis (31)
- Taekwondo (6)
- Wheelchair basketball (2)
- Wheelchair fencing (16)
- Wheelchair rugby
- Wheelchair tennis
Why is Russia as a country not officially the part of the games?
On 9 December 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned Russia from Olympic games for the period of four years after Russian agency tampered with the lab reports. The World Anti-Doping Agency has allowed the individual qualified athletes for the Paralympic Games 2020 under the separate banner. Russian athletes will not be allowed to take part in team games. The Russian athletes will represent Russian Paralympic Committee and play under their banner. Guyana and Bhutan will make their debut in Paralympic Games 2020 at Tokyo. Solomon Island will feature in their second Paralympic Games after missing out the 2016 editions at Rio.
3492 athletes from 122 countries or National Paralympic Committee will feature in 2020 Paralympic Games.
Indian Contingent at the Paralympic Games
India has been the part of Paralympic Games since the 1984 Edition, although India made their official debut in the special games back in 1984. Indians have some stronger contingent this time around as they achieved their complete quota at thanks to the World Archery Para Championships in 2019. Apart from this India have some good numbers contenders in almost every event.
How has Indians fared up in Paralympics till now?
India’s previous largest contingent for the Paralympics was at the RIO-2016 Edition. 19 athletes were the part of the event in 5 Different Sports. It was India’s best performance at a Summer Paralympics with 4 Medals (2 Golds, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze).
Seeing India’s performances in the Summer Olympics it is highly expected that the Paralympic contingent also make some remarkable impact.
Wishing everyone good luck for the games!
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