What are the events at the 2008 Paralympic Games? Can you elaborate on that?

The Paralympic Games were held in 1960.

It is a world-class multi-sport event hosted by the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) for people with disabilities, which is held every four years after the Summer Olympics and has been held 16 times in 2020.

Introduction

China first participated in the 7th Paralympic Games in New York in June 1984, and then participated in the 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2000 Paralympic Games. A total of 215 athletes were sent to the five Paralympic Games, winning 80 gold medals, 72 silver medals and 52 bronze medals, 59 breaking 75 world records and 25 Paralympic records.

Compared with Western countries, China's para sports started late and have a weak foundation. In 1984, China's reform and opening up was just beginning, and like other undertakings, the sports industry was in ruins.

In June of that year, para sports and able-bodied sports returned to the international arena and participated in the Olympic and Paralympic Games that year. China sent only 24 paralympic athletes to participate in the 7th International Summer Paralympic Games held in Long Island, New York, USA, and two blind girls, Ping Yali and Zhao Jihong, faced strong opponents from all over the world and fought bravely to win the women's B2 and B3 long jump gold medals respectively.

During the Second World War, the disabled soldiers on the European battlefield spontaneously organized themselves to carry out the first activities, which was the prototype of modern sports for the disabled. In 1948, the National Spinal Cord Injury Centre in Stoke Mandeville, England, hosted a sports competition for the disabled with only 16 disabled soldiers in wheelchairs, and the games have been held annually since then. In 1952, thanks to the participation of Dutch athletes, the Games evolved into an international sporting event.

In 1960, immediately after the Summer Olympics, about 400 disabled athletes from 23 countries in Europe and the United States gathered in Rome for the first World Para Games.

In 1976, the International Disabled Organisation decided to merge the Stoke 6 1 Mandeville Games with the World Para Games to host the first International Paralympic Games in Toronto, Canada, with 1,657 Para athletes from 38 countries competing. In 1988, the International Olympic Committee decided that the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games must be held in the same city.

In 2000, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) signed an agreement stipulating that cities bidding for the Olympic Games must bid for the Paralympic Games at the same time. The Paralympic Games will be held at the Olympic venues in the host city within one month after the Olympic Games.

From 1960 to 2005, 12 Summer Paralympics and 8 Winter Paralympic Games have been held.

In 1964, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided that the Paralympic Games should be hosted by the countries hosting the Summer Olympics, but not in the same city. In 1988, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) made a new regulation:

The Summer Olympics and Paralympics must be held in the same city. With the development of Para sports, the IOC and the International Paralympic Committee decided to jointly organize the Paralympic Games. In 2000, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) signed an agreement stipulating that cities bidding for the Olympic Games must bid for the Paralympic Games at the same time. It is stipulated that the Paralympic Games will be held at the Olympic venues in the host city within one month after the Olympic Games.

About 10 days after the Beijing Olympics, the Paralympic Games will be held in accordance with the agreement.

What are the sports specific to the Paralympics?

Most of the sports in the Paralympic Games are the same as those of the Olympic Games. Popular sports such as football, basketball, volleyball, athletics, and swimming will all be on the Paralympic calendar. The Tokyo Paralympic Games will feature 22 events and 539 events.

Badminton and taekwondo will be featured in Tokyo for the first time as Paralympic sports.

In addition to these common sports, the Paralympic Games also have two sports that are unique: boccia and goalball.

Data map: Two athletes practice indoor boccia during a break in the game. Photo by China News Service reporter Yu Ruidong.

Boccia originated in ancient Greece and was played by players in wheelchairs, and the score was calculated by the distance between the ball thrown and the target ball, with the player with the highest cumulative score winning. The sport is divided into singles, pairs, and team competitions. Each game consists of four quarters for singles and pairs, and six quarters for each team competition.

Goalball is one of the most exciting team events in the Paralympic programme. In the competition, both teams consist of 3 players each. The player has to roll the ball quickly into the opponent's goal to score points, while the opponent tries to block the ball with his body.

After the attacker throws the ball, the defender has 10 seconds to throw the ball back after one of the players touches it.

This competition is designed for visually impaired athletes. To prevent individual athletes from being placed in an advantageous or disadvantageous position due to varying degrees of visual impairment, all athletes are required to wear black eye patches on the field. It is worth mentioning that the ball used in the game has a hole on the surface and a bell is built into it, and the player can judge the position of the ball by the sound of the bell.

Why are there so few major events but more gold medals in the Paralympics?

The just-concluded Tokyo Olympics had a total of 33 sports, while the Tokyo Paralympics had only 22 sports. However, in terms of the number of gold medals, the number of gold medals at the Tokyo Paralympics reached 539, compared to 339 at the Tokyo Olympics.

The reason for this is that there are more events in the Paralympic Games than in the Olympics. Para competitions involve the grading of sports. In order to ensure fair and equitable competition, all events prior to the Paralympic Games will be graded according to the category and degree of disability of athletes, with athletes of the same or similar disability category competing in a group.

The Paralympic Games all have Paralympic alpine skiing, Para biathlon, Para cross-country skiing, Para ice hockey, wheelchair curling and other events. The participants were all people with disabilities.

Para ice hockey, Para alpine skiing, Para curling, Para biathlon, Para speed skating; It is true that all of the participants are people with disabilities.

The Beijing Paralympic Games are divided into 6 major events and 78 small events!

The six major sports are: Para ice hockey, snowboarding, biathlon, wheelchair curling, cross-country skiing, and alpine skiing. Among the 6 major projects, there are 78 small projects.