David Brown of the United States wins the gold medal in the 2016 Rio Paralympics event with his guide Jerome Avery (R). Credit: © Jason Cairnduff, Reuters

The 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, are being held from Aug. 24, 2021, to Sept. 5, 2021. More than 4,000 qualifying athletes will compete for gold in such sports as archery, cycling, equestrian, weightlifting, swimming, wheelchair basketball, and wheelchair tennis. To keep athletes and Tokyo residents safe, spectators will not be allowed to attend the events and additional safety measures have been put in place.

The Paralympic Games are an international sports event for male and female athletes with a variety of physical limitations. The Paralympic Games closely resemble the Olympic Games. They both are divided into summer and winter games and are held every four years. The Paralympics take place shortly after the regular Olympics conclude. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) organizes and governs the games.

Two women’s teams face each other in a basketball game during the Summer Paralympic Games. The Paralympics game follows the basic rules of regular basketball but with the players competing in wheelchairs.
© Bob Daemmrich, Alamy Images

The Paralympics are sometimes confused with the Special Olympics. The Paralympics primarily feature athletes with physical impairments. The Special Olympics concentrate on participants with intellectual disabilities. In addition, deaf athletes can compete in games called the Deaflympics, which started in 1924. These games are organized by the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf and recognized by the International Olympic Committee.

The IPC defines 10 types of eligible impairments for participating athletes. These include such conditions as impaired muscle power, visual impairment, and intellectual impairment. Each sport in the Paralympics allows athletes from particular impairment groups to participate. Many Paralympic events resemble those in the Olympic Games. Others are adapted to accommodate the disabilities of the athletes, such as wheelchair fencing and wheelchair curling.

The first disabled athlete to compete in the Olympic Games was probably George Eyser, a German-American amputee who won six medals as a gymnast in the 1904 Summer Olympics. The first organized competition for athletes with disabilities took place at the 1948 Summer Games in London. The organizers named the first games the Stoke Mandeville Games, after a British hospital that treated paraplegia (paralysis of the legs and lower body). The competition was then held annually, with increasing numbers of competitors. These early games were the forerunners of the modern Paralympics.

The first formal Summer Paralympic Games were held in 1960 in Rome, with 400 athletes competing. The games grew continually during the 1900’s and early 2000’s, with 4,300 athletes participating in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016. The first Winter Games were held in 1976 in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, with about 200 athletes participating. In the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, 567 athletes with disabilities competed. The 2020 Summer Games were postponed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic (worldwide epidemic).