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Some of the 4,000 athletes from 125 countries who participated were in wheelchairs, some had cerebral palsy, some had visual handicaps and some had mental handicaps.
On October 4, three days after the Olympics ended in Sydney, Australia, the torch relay which led up to the Paralympics began in the same city. The torch went to every capital city in the country. On October 18 a cauldron in Sydney was lit and the city's "other Olympics" began.
The Paralympics is not only the premier athletic even in the world for the disabled, but also the second largest sporting event in the world, second only to the Olympics. Between the Olympics and the Paralympics Australia had major athletic competions for 50 straight days. There were 18 events in the Paralympics.
As far as size comparison for participation, the 2,000 Sydney Paralympics was about equal to the 1956 Melborne Olympics and twice the size of the 1988 Nagano Winter Olympics.
There were competitions for athletes with six categories of disabilities. Some of the events were: singles and doubles archery for standing and wheelchair competitors, with scoring identical to Olympic scoring; athletics, including track, throwing, jumping, pentathalon and marathon; basketball for those with intellectual disability and those in a wheelchair; boccia, for those with cerebral palsy; equestrian events for competitors with all types of disabilities and goalball for those with a visual impairment.
Goalball is played with bells inside the ball on a court similar in size to volleyball. There must be silence during the game.
Other events were: cycling, including individual and team events; judo for the visually impaired; powerlifting for competitors of all disabilities; shooting, for all disability groups; swimming, in which no prostheses or assistive devices were allowed; table tennis; tennis, including singles and doubles events for those with mobile disabilities and in wheelchairs (the ball may bounce twice); sitting and standing volleyball and wheelchair rugby, played by quadriplegics.
The forerunner of the modern Paralympic games was a sports competition in Mandeville, England, scheduled to coincide with the London 1946 Olympic games. The event was organized for ex-servicemen in wheelchairs. Other events were held in other years.
The first Paralympics were in Rome in 1960, the same city which held the Olypic games that year. This year Sydney held the 11th Paralympics. Five time previously the Paralympics were in the same city in the same year as the Olympics: Rome in 1960; Tokyo in 1964; Seoul in 1988; Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta in 1996. There is no agreement between the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee for the two events to automatically be in the same city, but the two organizations try to work it out that way for both events to be able to use the same facilities and venues.
Just by reading and learning about some of the athletes in the Paralympics on the website of the International Paralympic Committee one may see the athletes take the event very seriously. Some of them are professionals. Some of them have competed in many other events in their sports. Some athletes have accomplishments that might make any athlete envious.
"The anticipation of the battle is just incredible," said David Hall, the number one tennis player in a wheelchair in the world. Hall, who lost his legs after a car accident won the U.S. Open in his event in 1997 and 1998 and the has won the Japan Open and the British Open.
"I still get nervous before a big match," Hall explained. " Just that burning desire to win it more than the other guy."
Troy Sachs, known as "the Michael Jordan" of wheelchair basketball has played professionaly in the USA League. His Dallas Mavericks team won championships in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999. He led Australia to a gold medal win, 78-63, over Brazil in Atlanta in 1996. He scored 42 points, a record unmatched by any athlete in either the Olympics or Paralympics.
"I get to defend our gold medal in front of a home crowd," Sachs said before this year's Paralympics.
"Some people are under the misapprehension that athletes with a disability are somehow 'nicer' to each other," said wheelchair basketball athlete Donna Ritchie. "Boy, have they got that wrong. My nickname is 'the axe.'"
Ritchie is captain of the Australian basketball team and has played for the Club Sydney Comets.
Louis Savage is the undisputed wheelchair track and road champion. She holds three world records, has won seven Paralympic gold medals and 11 world championship golds. She has also won the Boston Marathon in her division three times.
She said here gretest moment was "winning my first ever Paralympic gold medal at the 1992 Paralympic Games."
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