IPC Formation

Bet you didn’t know how many sports are presided over by the International Paralympic Committee! With over two dozen individual events, the IPC has grown tremendously since its founding in the 60s. With summer events coming up soon, many Direct carriers offer TV coverage – watch your favorite IPC Sports this year!
Athletics: This Paralympic sport includes tons of different athletic activities including many different track events, jumping events (including high-jump!), Javelin and even Pentathlon. If you missed the summer Olympics, get ready for the summer IPC!< (more…)

The International Paralympic Committee’s Headquarters is the hub in which all operations of the International Paralympic Organization takes place. Located in Bonn, Germany, this headquarters used to be fully staffed by volunteers. However, due to drastic growth over the past few decades through an increase in the services offered, a professional office staff is now employed to keep up with the workload.

Around the time that this growth was taking place, the federal government of Germany provided funds that make relocating to a larger (more…)

1.Alpine Skiing- For both male and female athletes this contains five events within the category, the Downhill, Super-G, Super Combined, Giant Slalom and the Slalom.

2.Athletics- For both male and female athletes it contains various track events, a marathon, jumping events, throwing events and combined events depending on the athlete’s classification.

3.Biathlon- For both male and female athletes and alternates between two abilities, Cross-Country skiing and shooting.

4.Cross-Country Skiing- For both male and female athletes there are a variety of distances for this event ranging (more…)

The Paralympic Committee performs the same task for the Paralympic games that the Olympic committee does for the Olympic games. It organizes the winter and summer events, picks the cities where the events are held. The games are always held immediately after the Olympic games. The Paralympic committee governs the rules under which the athletes compete, and it resolves any disputes within the committee. It organizes the events and determines the categories of the competing athletes.

The Paralympic Committee and the Paralympic (more…)

Sir Philip Craven MBE is the second president of the International Paralympic Committee, preceded by Robert Steadward. He has been in charge of the IPC since he was elected in 2001. The IPC is a non-profit that organizes the Paralympic Games, which provides opportunities for persons with a disability to compete in a sport, no matter what their level of skill. He is also a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Sir Philip Craven started his sports administrator career in 1977, as the Chairman of the Great Britain Wheelchair Basketball Association. Since then he has gone on (more…)

The function of the International Paralympic Committee is to organize the Paralympic Games, and serve as the governing body for nine paralympic sports. As with the International Olympic Committee, the federation is made up of 161 National Paralympic Committees from around the world. Founded in 1989, the IPC put’s on both the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games, which take two weeks (or so) after the Summer and Winter Olympic Games in the host city. While a version of the Paralympic games has existed since 1960, they did not line up with the (more…)

Disabilities won’t keep winter athletes from taking to the slopes at events like the Paralympic Winter Games, IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships, and the IPC Disabled Alpine World Cup. Skiiers can compete in standing, sitting, or visually impaired classes. Standing classes generally use two skis and may use outriggers or poles as well. Those with a single leg amputation above the knee, however, use a single ski and two outriggers. Visually-impaired skiers are accompanied by a sighted guide, who leads, follows, or skis beside the athlete and instructs them by voice only. To account for the different time expectations in different categories, all skiers’ results are standardized by multiplying by a fixed number between zero and one. (more…)

The International Paralympic Committee isn’t the only organization in charge of sponsoring paralympic sports. The World Organization Volleyball for Disabled (WOVD) is also an organization with international reach. Established in 1951 as part of the International Sports Organization for Disabled, WOVD later branched off on its own. In 1980, Pieter Christiaan Joon established the WOVD in the Netherlands and served as President of the Organization from 1980-2001. Twelve years later, the organization was established in Barcelona, Spain. Today, the WOVD has four different zonesthe Afro-Arab zone, the Asia-Oceania zone, the European Zone, and the Pan-American zone. In each of its many forms, WOVD sponsors international paralympic volleyball competitions for men, women and children.The most common variation of volleyball practiced in WOVD games is known as sitting volleyball. Introduced in 1956, the game is played on a smaller-than-average court with a 0.8 meter regulation net raised at a height of 1.15 meters for men and 1.05 meters for women. The players maintain contact with either their rear or an extension of the torso at all times. The game can be difficult to learn, but many paralympic athletes have made their name in the sportincluding Pieter Christian Joon. This year in the United States, the WOVD 2010 Sitting Volleyball Worlds was held from July 10 to July 18 at the University of Central Oklahoma. The US also hosts a National Sitting Volleyball Team, open to athletes with “a physical disability that limits their ability to playstanding up.” (more…)

Wheelchair rugby has been one of the most popular sports at the Summer Paralympics since its inception in 2000. The 2005 film Murderball tells the story of the American team that traveled to the 2004 Athens Paralympics, including players Andy Cohn, Scott Hogsett, Bob Lujano, and Mark Zupan. Novelist Dana Adam Shapiro and filmmaker Henry-Alex Rubin collaborated on the film, which was acclaimed for presenting a full picture of quadriplegic lifenot afraid to showcase some of the more taboo subjects (like when Zupan discusses quadriplegic sex), but never devolving into pity or melodrama. (more…)

Stoke Mandeville Hospital was associated with the very first games for para-athletes in 1948, led by Dr. Ludwig Guttmann. It’s fitting, then, that the Paralympic Shooting World Cup finally came to Stoke Mandeville Stadium last week.Paralympic shooting is divided into two categories based on whether the disability affects the upper limbs. Both pistol and rifle shooting is featured. The competition featured more than 70 competitors from 15 countries. Last year, Britain won two silver and two bronze medals, and the team was even more successful this year. Scunthorpe athlete Rob McLeary won his first gold medal, with five other athletes also bringing in the gold. Britain also won the bronze and silver medals in the SH2 category of the Falling Target competition. The IPC Shooting page (www.ipc-shooting.org) has more information on the sport and upcoming events. Britain will also be hosting the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.