Paralympics
Paralympics Author: Krista Flack, MS OTR/L
The Rio 2016 Paralympic Games will be held from September 7-18, 2016. Around 4,350 athletes from more than 160 countries will travel to Rio to compete in 528 medal events in 22 different sports, including archery, cycling, equestrian, sailing, wheelchair basketball, and my favorite: wheelchair rugby!
The Paralympics is an amazing and inspiring thing to watch. It is exciting to see how, despite significant challenges, these men and women have overcome adversity and are able to participate in sports they love at an international level. In order to participate, athletes must have an impairment in one of the following ten categories:
- Impaired muscle power: Reduced force generated by muscles or muscle groups, such as muscles of one limb or the lower half of the body, as caused, for example, by spinal cord injuries, spina bifida or polio
- Impaired passive range of movement: Range of movement in one or more joints is reduced permanently, for example due to arthrogryposis. Hypermobility of joints, joint instability, and acute conditions, such as arthritis, are not considered eligible impairments.
- Limb deficiency: Total or partial absence of bones or joints as a consequence of trauma (e.g. car accident), illness (e.g. bone cancer) or congenital limb deficiency (e.g. dysmelia).
- Leg length difference: Bone shortening in one leg due to congenital deficiency or trauma.
- Short stature: Reduced standing height due to abnormal dimensions of bones of upper and lower limbs or trunk, for example due to achondroplasia or growth hormone dysfunction.
- Hypertonia: Abnormal increase in muscle tension and a reduced ability of a muscle to stretch, due to a neurological condition, such as cerebral palsy, brain injury or multiple sclerosis.
- Ataxia: Lack of co-ordination of muscle movements due to a neurological condition, such as cerebral palsy, brain injury or multiple sclerosis.
- Athetosis: Generally characterised by unbalanced, involuntary movements and a difficulty in maintaining a symmetrical posture, due to a neurological condition, such as cerebral palsy, brain injury or multiple sclerosis.
- Visual impairment: Vision is impacted by either an impairment of the eye structure, optical nerves or optical pathways, or the visual cortex.
- Intellectual Impairment: A limitation in intellectual functioning and adaptive behaviour as expressed in conceptual, social and practical adaptive skills, which originates before the age of 18.
For more information about the games, sports, and athletes, check out the official Rio 2016 Paralympic Games website. There you can learn more about specific events, read biographies of athletes, and get the short list of athletes to watch.
