Paralympics 2021, commonly known as Tokyo 2020 main
events, ends on September 5. The events have attracted 179 outstanding
athletes.
The games have gained
traction across the world after the Rio 2016 events which recorded over 4.1
billion views, according to IPC. Here are interesting facts you may have not
heard about the Paralympics.
Paralympics Started at a
UK hospital
As much as we know the
Olympics started in Athens, Greece 1896, Paralympics come in after World War II
as healthy exercise for disabled veterans. Founded by Sir Ludwig Guttmann at a
spinal injuries Centre in Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Buckinghamshire UK
Paralympics turned into a national event, inspiring the international community
and later caught the eye of the Olympic Games committee. The committee held the
first Paralympic Games in Rome Italy, in 1960.
Paralympic Games were
first played by returning war vets with spinal injury
Dr. Guttman introduced
sporting activities –wheelchair competitions – for the returning war vets as an
exercise to speed up their recovery from spinal injuries.
Paralympics means
alongside Olympics
Out of thought for many
people, Paralympics comes from the Greek preposition “para” meaning “alongside”
–thus the denoted meaning, “alongside Olympics”. The events are simply the
second Olympics for disabled athletes.
Meaning of Paralympics
symbol
The Paralympics has
three Agitos symbols consisting of three colours; red, blue, and green. Agitos
means ‘I move’ in Latin and it symbolises the athletes ‘spirit in motion. The
symbol represents the spirit of being an athlete. The Olympics Olympics symbol
represents the world coming together.
Gold medals are not made
of 100% gold
Gold medals awarded to
athletes are silver medals plated with gold. Nestlé Cereals writes, “An
interesting Paralympic fact is that for the 2021 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic
Games, each medal has been moulded entirely from metal extracted from recycled
consumer electronics, marking the first time when the public has been
proactively involved in donating electronic devices used to make the Olympic
and Paralympic medals.”
