Content updated: 15th May 2024
France will host its first ever Summer Paralympic Games from the 28th August to the 8th September 2024 so the countdown to the Paralympic Games is officially ON! To help celebrate, we've pulled together some of the most amazing facts to get us inspired until the competition torch gets lit up once more.
The Paralympic Games bring together amazing athletes with a range of disabilities, but contrary to what many people believe, the name of this international multi-sport event doesn’t come from merging the words ‘paralysis’ and ‘Olympics’ together. ‘Paralympics’ comes from the Greek preposition ‘para’ which means ‘alongside’ - it’s the event running alongside the Olympics.
From Archery and Badminton to Table Tennis and Rowing, the 2024 Summer Paralympics really will have something for everyone to enjoy watching. Find out more about the full list of sports and events by visiting ParalympicsGB | Summer sports.
The first Paralympic Games were held in 1960 in Rome, alongside the Olympic Games. Although still known at the time as the International Stoke Mandeville Games, the Paralympic spirit was already alive in each one of the 400 athletes from 23 countries participating in various sports.
While the Olympics have the Olympic rings, the Paralympics has three symbols. Three Agitos consist of three colours: red, blue and green. Agitos means ‘I move’ in Latin and it symbolises the athletic ‘spirit in motion’.
A less-known Paralympic fact is how the gold medal is made. Every athlete strives for gold, but in reality, the much-coveted gold medals are silver medals plated with gold. An interesting Paralympic fact is that for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, each medal was been moulded entirely from metal extracted from recycled consumer electronics, marking the first time when the public had been proactively involved in donating electronic devices used to make the Olympic and Paralympic medals.
Transforming attitudes, breaking down barriers and inspiring generations of people all around the world is not easy. But the Paralympics have done it again and again. That’s because each athlete strives to embody four important values that have come to define the Paralympic competition: courage, determination, inspiration and equality. These are the official Paralympic Values. Find out more about the amazing Paralympic Movement by visiting Paralympic.org.
The IPC was founded in 1989 with an inspiring mission: "to enable Paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence and inspire and excite the world". The committee serves as the international federation for 10 para-sports and it organises both the Summer and Winter Paralympic competitions from its headquarters in Bonn, Germany.
It was a monumental year for the Paralympics in Rio, as The Games were broadcast in more than 150 countries, attracting more viewers than ever before. The 2016 Games reached a TV audience of more than 4.1 billion people according to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). This was a 7% increase in the 3.8 billion people that watched the London 2012 event.
Before the Paralympic Games we know and love, there were the Stoke Mandeville Games, also known as the Wheelchair Games. In 1948, World War II soldiers were returning from the front lines with debilitating spinal cord injuries.
The British government asked neurosurgeon Dr. Ludwig Guttman to open a spinal injury centre at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire to help these war veterans cope with their disabilities. Soon Dr. Guttman made an amazing breakthrough: sport was an important part of the rehabilitation process.
What started as a wheelchair competition on the hospital grounds meant to help soldiers recover from their injuries, soon turned into a national event that inspired the international community and caught the eye of the Olympic Games committee. What an inspiring Paralympic fact!
The six different disability groups include: amputee, cerebral palsy, visual impairment, spinal cord injuries, intellectual disability, and "les autres" (athletes whose disability does not fit into one of the other categories, including dwarfism). Each disability group has its own classification system to ensure fair competition.
This classification system assesses the impact of an athlete's impairment on their ability to perform in a specific sport and groups them accordingly. It allows athletes with similar levels of impairment to compete against each other, creating a level playing field and promoting equitable competition.
Discover more about the classifications on the International Paralympic Committee website.
Did you know that Nestle Cereals are proud partners of ParalympicsGB?
Not only that, Cheerios and ParalympicsGB are on a mission to Bring The Cheer to the team as they compete on the biggest stage of all at the Paris Paralympic Game. Check out our Nestle Cereals and ParalympicsGB partnership page and make as much noise as possible!
Discover more about how you can support ParalympicsGB at paralympics.org.uk.
