Disability Sport Events

Major disability sporting events include:

Paralympic Games

A multi-sport event for athletes with physical, mental and sensorial disabilities. This includes mobility disabilities, amputees, visual disabilities and those with cerebral palsy. The Paralympic Games are held every four years, following the Olympic Games, and are governed by the International Paralympic Committee.The IPC has established six disability categories. Athletes with one of these physical disabilities are able to compete in the Paralympics.These apply to both Summer and Winter Paralympics.

Amputee: Athletes with a partial or total loss of at least one limb.

Cerebral Palsy: Athletes with non-progressive brain damage, for example Cerebral Palsy, traumatic brain injury, stroke or similar disabilities affecting muscle control, balance or coordination.

Intellectual Disability: Athletes with a significant impairment in intellectual functioning and associated limitations in adaptive behavior.

Wheelchair: Athletes with spinal cord injuries and other disabilities which require them to compete in a wheelchair.

Visually Impaired: Athletes with visual impairment ranging from partial vision, sufficient to be judged legally blind, to total blindness.

Les Autres: Athletes with a physical disability that does not fall strictly under one of the other five categories, such as dwarfism, multiple sclerosis or congenital deformities of the limbs such as that caused by thalidomide (the name for this category is the French for "the others")

Deaflympics

The Summer and Winter Deaflympics are among the world's fastest growing sports events.The Deaflympics are held every 4 years.To qualify for the games, athletes must have a hearing loss of at least 55 db in their "better ear". Hearing aids, cochlear implants and the like are not allowed to be used in competition, to place all athletes on the same level.

Special Olympics

The global Special Olympics movement got its start on 20 July 1968, when the First International Special Olympics Games were held at Soldier Field, Chicago, Illinois, USA. The competitions are held every two years, alternating between Summer and Winter Games, for people who have intellectual disabilities. There are also local, national and regional competitions in over 150 countries worldwide. India is designated as a Priority Nation by Special Olympics International, the goal is to extend the Special Olympics programme throughout the country and reach over 1,000,000 people with Intellectual Disability by end 2012. This programme has so far drawn over 36000 coaches to work with over 655234 athletes across 32 State Programs.It is known as Special Olympics Bharat.

Disability Commonwealth Games

For the first time in the Games history a number of Para-Sports were included in a fully inclusive Sports Program in Manchester 2002 when 20 countries sent both male and female elite athletes with a disability to compete in 10 events across 5 different Para-Sports; Athletics, Lawn Bowls, Swimming, Table Tennis and Weightlifting. The Commonwealth has always said it wanted to play a lead role in social issues.