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Sports -

Paralympic Games, major international sports competition for athletes with

disabilities. Comparable to the Olympic Games, the Paralympics are split into
Winter Games and Summer Games, which alternately occur every two years.
Many of the same Olympic events are included—such as Alpine skiing, cross-
country skiing, and biathlon for winter sports and cycling, archery, and
swimming for summer sports—although sports equipment for the Paralympics
may be modified for specific disabilities. Since the late 20th century the
Paralympics have been held in the same city that hosts the corresponding
Olympic Games; the Paralympics
follow shortly after the Olympics
conclude. The International Paral-
ympic Committee, which was

founded in 1989 and is based in
Germany, governs the Paralympic
Games. The Paralympics developed
after Sir Ludwig Guttmann
organized a sports competition for
British World War II veterans with
spinal cord injuries in England in
1948. A follow-up competition took

place in 1952, with athletes from the
Netherlands joining the British competitors. In 1960 the first quadrennial
Olympic-style Games for disabled athletes were held in Rome; the quadrennial
Winter Games were added in 1976, in Sweden. Since the Seoul 1988 Olympic
Games (and the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France), the Paralympics
have been held at the Olympic venues and have used the same facilities. In 2001
“

the International Olympic Committee and

the International Paralympic Committee
agreed on the practice of “one bid, one

city,” in which every city that bids to host
the Olympics also bids to hold the
related Paralympics.
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