Paralympic Games facts

While investigating facts about Paralympic Games 2020 and Paralympic Games 2019, I found out little known, but curios details like:

There was a 12 year ban on athletes with intellectual disabilities competing in the Paralympic Games because of the Spanish Basketball Team cheating in the 2000 Games by having 10 members pretend they had a disability.

how many sports are in the paralympic games?

That, during the 2000 Paralympic Games, the basketball team from Spain which competed in the sport for intellectually disabled, cheated by including 10 (out of 12) players who weren't actually intellectually disabled.

Wheelchair basketball at the paralympic games?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what is paralympic games. Here are 20 of the best facts about Paralympic Games 2018 and Paralympic Games History I managed to collect.

originally which was the only category of participants at the paralympic games?

1. 10 members of a Spanish Paralympic basketball team were ordered to hand back their Sydney Games gold medals after it was revealed that they had no mental handicap.

2. Tennis has been part of the Paralympic Games since 1992.

3. Spain's Paralympic basketball team were forced to return their gold medals from the 2000 Sydney Games after their players were found to have no disabilities.

4. In the 2000 paralympic games most of the Spanish basketball team were not actually intellectually disabled but were asked to fake it.

5. Ten members of the Spanish Paralympic basketball team were ordered to hand back their 2000 Sydney Games gold medals after it was revealed that they had no intellectual disability

6. In the Paralympic games of 2000 in Sydney, Spain fielded a team of non disabled athletes to win the basketball gold medal.

7. Marla Runyan, who is legally blind, is a 3 time national champion in the women's 5000 meters. She won 4 gold medals in the 1992 summer Paralympics, 2 silvers in 1996 and in 2000 became the first legally blind Paralympian to compete in the Olympic games in Sydney, Australia.

8. There is a para-biathlon at the Paralympic Games and it includes blind athletes who shoot based on sound.

9. Spain cheated and put 10 non-disabled individuals on basketball game the 2000 Sydney Paralympics games

10. Venezuelan Paralympian Naomi Soazo. A visually-impaired Judoka who, during the 2008 games, defeated her first opponent within a minute of her first match and went on to win the Final by defeating her opponent in 3 seconds. Securing Venezuela's first ever Paralympic gold medal for any sport.

Why are the paralympic games important for athletes with disabilities?

You can easily fact check how and why did the first paralympic games come about by examining the linked well-known sources.

Musician Ian Dury, the late great lead singer of The Blockheads, won gold at the Paralympic games taking place at Stoke Mandeville in the UK which initiated the paralympic movement we know today.

About the Invictus Games an international Paralympic-style multi-sport event, created by Prince Harry , in which wounded, injured or sick armed services personnel and their associated veterans take part in sports including wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball, and indoor rowing - source

The "Para" in paralympics is derived from "Parallel" so as to mean that the Paralympics are the parallel Games to the Olympics.

Bradley Snyder, then a US Navy Lt. serving in Afghanistan in 2011, lost both eyes after he stepped on an IED while helping victims of another bombing. In the 2012 London Paralympic Games he won Gold in the Men's 400m Freestyle (swimming), exactly one year to the day after losing his eyesight. - source

When was the first paralympic games held?

Spain took home gold in the basketball tournament during the 2000 Paralympic Games. 10 of their players were not disabled.

How many sports are included in summer paralympic games?

The “Para-“ in Paralympics stands for “parallel,” because the games are organized in parallel with the Olympic Games.

The founded of the Paralympic Games was a German Jewish neurologist. during world war 2 he drastically changed the way paralyzed patients were treated by integrating physical activity into their treatment. Before his intervention they were viewed as hopeless cripples.