Amazing Athletes: An All-Star Look at Canada's Paralympians

Amazing Athletes: An All-Star Look at Canada's Paralympians — page 1
The paralympic games The Paralympic Games bring together the best high performance athletes with disabilities from many countries They are organized by the International Paralympic Committee IPC which was founded in 1989 This is the Paralympic symbol It represents the motto of the IPC Spirit in Motion Its colours red blue and green are the hues most often found on the flags of the world’s countries The origin of Paralympic The word Paralympic is formed from the prefix para meaning beside or alongside and the word Olympic because the Paralympic Games are held alongside the Olympic Games Since 1988 they have taken place about two weeks after the Olympic Games in the same sports facilities Fair and equitable competition Para sports are a range of sporting activities for athletes with various types of physical visual or intellectual disabilities It is important to ensure that athletes competing against each other have comparable abilities This guarantees that the athletes success is determined by their skills physical fitness endurance concentration and strategic capabilities rather than by the extent of their impairment Each athlete is therefore placed in a category This system is similar to the weight classes in sports such as judo or boxing 4