Four yearly games for
diasbled athletes. First held in
Rome in 1960, it is not the "Para-Olympics" but the Paralympics, in
parallel with the
Olympics. The Paralympics run about two weeks after each
Olympics at (usually) the same
location.
There are currently 18 sports in the games, and each has its own classification system to accommodate the full range of diasbilities. There are approximately twice the number of medals on offer than the Olympics beacuse of this. Case in point: there are 26 100m sprints at the games.
Games History:
1960, Rome
23 nations, 400 athletes
1964, Tokyo
22 nations, 390 athletes
1968, Tel-Aviv - Israel stepped in when the negotiations with the Olympics hosts, Mexico fell apart
29 nations, 750 athletes
1972, Heidelberg
42 nations, 1004 athletes
1976, Toronto
40 nations, 1560 athletes
1980, Arnhem
42 nations, 2000 athletes
1984, New York - split venue due to funding problems
45 nations, 1750 athletes
1984, Aylesbury
41 nations, 1100 athletes
1988, Seoul - first true parallel with the Olympics
61 nations, 3050 athletes
1992, Barcelona
82 nations, 3500 athletes
1996, Atlanta
102 nations, 4000 athletes
2000, Sydney
125 nations, 4000 athletes