Every year, the summer and winter olympics receive lots of attention and publicity. But another olympic event that doesn’t receive as much coverage is the paralympics.
The Paralympics provides athletes with disabilities and opportunity to compete in Olympic sports with necessary accommodations made. This winter, the paralympic sports that are offered are para alpine skiing, para biathlon, para snowboarding, and wheelchair curling.
Para alpine skiing is an adaptive version of alpine skiing for athletes with physical or visual impairments. This features six different types of skiing: downhill, slalom, super-G, super combined, and a series of team events. Athletes in wheelchairs or leg splints race down the hills at speeds of around 100km/h.
Athletes with spinal or visual injuries are able to compete in para snowboarding, with some athletes faced with balancing and steadying themselves with just one arm.
Wheelchair curling is a sport that paralympics have been competing in since 2006, where teams slide 42 pound granite stones towards a target.
Throughout Paralympic history several athletes have achieved massive success. Trischa Zorn, representing the USA, was born with a birth disorder that resulted in her being blind, but despite this challenge, she is the most infamous para athlete in history, having won 55 medals, 41 of those being gold. Jonas Jacobson of Sweden follows behind her, with 30 total medals, having won these medals despite being born paralyzed from the waist down.
The first official paralympics game was held in Italy in 1960, more than six decades after the modern Olympics began. Although it took many years for inclusive competition to be enforced, the event has grown into a global celebration of athleticism and individuality .
The paralympics is sponsored even more during the summer, as the para athletes compete in wheelchair races, wheelchair basketball, and para archery.
Ultimately, the Paralympics highlights the strength and determination of athletes with disabilities, challenging outdated assumptions and proving the greatness in sports has no limits.