How Many Different Sports Are There in the Paralympics?
The Paralympics is an international multi-sport event for athletes with physical disabilities. In this blog post, we’ll be taking a look at how many different sports are contested at the Paralympics.
Checkout this video:
Introduction
The Paralympics is an international multi-sport event involving athletes with a range of disabilities, including mobility impairments, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which are held every four years immediately following the respective Olympic Games. The first organized athletic event for athletes with disabilities was held in 1948 in Britain, and the first official Paralympic Games were held in Rome in 1960.
As of 2016, there are 26 sports on the Paralympic program: 20 for the Summer Paralympics and six for the Winter Paralympics.
The Different Types of Paralympic Sports
The Paralympics are a multi-sport event for athletes with physical disabilities. There are a total of 24 different sports in the Paralympics. Some of the sports are similar to the ones in the Olympics, such as track and field, swimming, and wheelchair basketball. However, there are also some unique Paralympic sports, such as goalball and wheelchair rugby. Let’s take a closer look at some of the different sports in the Paralympics.
Winter Sports
The Paralympic Games are an international multi-sport event for athletes with physical, sensory or intellectual disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which are held immediately after the corresponding Olympic Games. Both the Paralympic and Olympic Games are organized by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
The Winter Paralympic Games were first held in 1976 in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. For the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, 72 medal events in five sports were contested. The sports contested at the Winter Paralympics are alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, ice sledge hockey and wheelchair curling.
Athletes with physical disabilities compete in alpine skiing. There are four events: downhill, slalom, super combined and super-G. Athletes with visual impairments compete with the help of a sighted guide. In biathlon, athletes with a physical disability compete in cross-country skiing and shooting. Cross-country skiing comprises two events: sprint and middle distance. In ice sledge hockey, there is a team comprised of six players on the ice—two midfielders, three forwards and one defenseman—and two goalies. Wheelchair curling is played by two teams of four athletes on a rink specially designed for wheelchair users.
Summer Sports
The Paralympic Games feature a wide variety of summer sports, including athletics (track and field), wheelchair basketball, para-cycling, para-equestrian dressage, wheelchair fencing, powerlifting, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, triathlon and wheelchair rugby.
Conclusion
From the research that was conducted, it was found that there are a total of twenty-two different sports that are featured in the Paralympic Games. This is two less than the amount of sports featured in the Olympic Games. It is important to note that this number is always subject to change as new sports are being added and removed from both the Paralympic and Olympic Games on a regular basis.
