The Summer Paralympics, also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, are an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy. The Paralympic Games are held every four years, organized by the International Paralympic Committee. Medals are awarded in every event, with gold medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, a tradition that the Olympic Games started in 1904.
The United States, the United Kingdom and Japan each hosted the Summer Paralympic Games twice. Another eleven countries that hosted the summer Paralympics included Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Greece, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain and West Germany.
Multiple countries — Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, United States — were represented at all Summer Paralympic Games. Seven of those countries won at least one gold medal at every Summer Paralympic Games: Australia, Austria, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United States.
The United States was the top-ranking (medals) nation for eight Paralympic Summer Games: 1964, 1968, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996. China was the top-ranking nation for the fifth most recent Games, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020. Italy (1960), West Germany (1972) and Australia (2000) were the top-ranking nations once each.
Qualification
Qualification rules for each of the Paralympic sports are set by the International Federation (IF) that governs that sport's international competition.
Historically
The first official Paralympic Games was held in Rome, Italy, in 1960. 400 athletes from 23 countries competed at the 1960 Games though only athletes in wheelchairs competed.
At the 1976 Summer Games athletes with different disabilities were included for the first time at a summer Paralympics. With the inclusion of more disability classifications, the 1976 Summer Games expanded to 1,600 athletes from 40 countries.
The 1988 Summer Paralympics were the first to be hosted in the same venues (and thus use the same facilities) as the Olympics of that year. Since then, all Paralympic Games are now held in the same city that hosted the Olympics, with a two-week gap between each.
Rio de Janeiro held the 2016 Summer Paralympics, becoming the first Latin American and South American city to host either the Summer or Winter Games. Tokyo hosted the 2020 Summer Paralympics which made it the first city to host the games twice.
Classification
Every participant at the Paralympics has their disability grouped into one of ten disability categories; impaired muscle power, impaired passive range of movement, limb deficiency, leg length difference, short stature, hypertonia, ataxia, athetosis, vision impairment and intellectual impairment. Each Paralympic sport then has its own classifications, dependent upon the specific physical demands of competition. Events are given a code, made of numbers and letters, describing the type of event and classification of the athletes competing. Some sports, such as athletics, divide athletes by both the category and severity of their disabilities, other sports, for example swimming, group competitors from different categories together, the only separation being based on the severity of the disability. Within the ten disability categories the athletes still need to be divided according to their level of impairment. The classification systems differ from sport to sport and is intended to even the playing field so as to allow as many athletes to participate as possible. Classifications vary in accordance with the different skills required to perform the sport.
Archery: Archery is open to athletes with a physical disability. Classifications are broken up into three divisions: W1, spinal cord injured and cerebral palsy athletes with impairment in all four limbs. W2, wheelchair users with full arm function. W3, standing amputee, Les Autres and cerebral palsy standing athletes. Some athletes in the standing group will sit on a high stool for support but will still have their feet touching the ground.
Athletics: Athletics are open to all disability groups and uses a functional classification system. A brief classification guide is as follows: prefixing F for field athletes or T for track athletes. F or T 11–13 are visually impaired, F or T 20 are learning disabled, F or T 32–38 are cerebral palsy, F or T 40–46 amputee and Les Autres, T 51–54 wheelchair track athletes and F 51–58 wheelchair field athletes.