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The Paralympics
The Paralympics began in 1948 in Stoke Mandeville, England as a sports competition for World War II veterans with spinal cord injuries. Four years after Sir Ludwig Guttman organized the first games, they went international, with Dutch athletes joining in. The Paralympics first started to fashion themselves into an Olympic-style competition in Rome in 1960, but it wasn't until the Toronto games in 1976 that more disability groups were added. International athletes from different disability groups competed in the first Paralympic Winter Games in Sweden later that year.
These days, there are six different disability groups represented in the Paralympics: amputee, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, vision-impaired, wheelchair, and "les autres" ("the others," which includes athletes with a wide range of conditions that don't fit into the established groups). Like the Olympics, the Paralympics focus on the athletic abilities and achievements of participants. Their disabilities are of secondary importance.
The Summer Paralympics 2000 are in Sydney, Australia, following the Summer Olympics. The Winter Games will take place in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA in 2002. The Paralympics have always taken place in the same years as the Olympics, and since the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, they have been held in the same places. What has changed greatly through the years, though, is the number of participating athletes: from a mere 400 in Rome in 1960, the Paralympics have grown to more than 4000 in Sydney this year.
Comprehension Questions
1. The Paralympics became an international competition in
a. 1948
b. 1952
c. 1960
2. The Paralympics expanded to include different disability groups in
a. Sweden
b. Rome
c. Toronto
3. A blind athlete would compete in which disability group?
a. intellectual disability
b. amputee
c. vision-impaired
4. The Paralympics have been held the same year as the Olympics since the Seoul Summer Games in 1988. True / False
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