IPC Formation

International Paralympic Committee’s Headquarters in Bonn, Germany

admin — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000

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 complex to accommodate the growing workforce, possible.Is this new to you? Catch up here In September of 1999, the new IPC Headquarters was opened in the city of Bonn, Germany.

The general operations that take place in the IPC headquarters include overseeing the funds and delegating them accordingly throughout the organization. The office operates in a concise manner with the CEO at the helm. In addition to the CEO, there is a vast support staff that ensures all aspects of the IPC operate efficiently and effectively on an annual basis. Among some of the other positions that make up the IPC are: member relations providers, medical research doctors, trainers and specialists within each genre of supported sporting events, executive assistants and many more.

The Nine Sports governed by the International Paralympic Committee

admin — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000

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 from a 2.5km to a 20km race.

5.Ice Sledge Hockey- Is currently for male athletes only, it is the equivalent of ice hockey, with variations made based on disability.

6.Power Lifting- For both male and female athletes, there are various weight classes similar to weight lifting; however athletes compete in a bench press position.

7.Shooting- For both male and female athletes, there are two weapons rifle and pistol at various ranges.

8.Swimming- For both male and female athletes, there are freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke and medley events.

9.Wheelchair Dance Sport- For both male and female athletes, this can be done in a duo or solo performance.

International Paralympic Committee’s Role in the Paralympic Games

admin — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

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 Games have suffered from lack of funding. The games featuring athletes with full mobility still gets more attention and funding from corporate sponsors and from members of the committee.

The game features athletes with multiple disabilities. They were founded after World War II by a group of disabled veterans. No disabled athletes competed in any organized Olympic events until after World War II. The name is not used to indicate that the athletes are disabled, but that the games themselves are held parallel to the Olympic games. The current name did not come into use until 1988. The committee applied the term to the Seoul Summer Olympics.

Athletes with physical disabilities compete in these games. The Special Olympics committee governs the competition for athletes with developmental disabilities.

Bet You Didn’t Know About These IPC Sports

admin — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

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!< br />Swimming: Altered to compensate for different athlete’s abilities, swimming is similar in structure to the regular IOC. Time to get wet with the IPC!
Powerlifting: The athletes who compete in powerlifting display amazing feats of strength. From dead press to bench press, there are tons of different events that comprise this selection. It’s always an individual race to be better when IFC competitors are lifting!
Tune in this summer for the best in IFC sports – even if it’s a rerun, you’ll get caught up in the action when you’re enjoying Olympic sports!

President Sir Philip Craven of the International Paralympic Committee.

admin — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

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 to be the president of the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation from 1998 to 2002. During his time as an administrator, he has played a major role in how wheelchair basketball players are classified.

During the 70′s and the 80′s he also represented Great Britain as a member of its wheelchair basketball team at the Paralympic Games. He also competed in the World Championships, in which he was a member of the gold medal team in 1973 and a member of the bronze medal team in 1975, and the European Championships, winning two gold medals (1971 and 1974) and a silver medal (1993).

The Essential Function of the International Paralympic Committee

admin — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

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 host city since the Paralympics took place in 1988 following the Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea.

While the IPC’s function is to govern Paralympic sports, it’s also to properly market them. Since the committee was founded, the popularity of the Paralympic Games has skyrocketed. What started out as a small event became one that actually became as important to cities hosting the games as the actual Olympics. For example, when Vancouver hosted the 2010 Winter Paralympic Games, the Olympic organizing committee put more resources then ever before into advertising the Paralympic games, which led to an 80 attendance, far higher then most games in the past.

Paralympic skiing

www.ipcformation.com — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

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.2011 saw the return of the IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships, held in Sestriere, Italy in mid-January. The event was last held in Jeongseon, South Korea’s High1 Resort in 2009. The United States had a number of athletes competing, including Alana Nichols and Laurie Stephens, who placed 1^st and 2^nd respectively in Women Downhill Training Sitting 1. Nichols also participates in wheelchair basketball and helped the women’s team take the Gold at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games. At Vancouver 2010, she took two Gold medals for giant slalom sitting and downhill sitting events. Stephens is also an accomplished swimmer and set a U.S. Record in that event. During her rookie ski season, she won her first World Cup event along with the World Cup mono-ski overall and giant slalom titles.The paralympic skiing event is one of the strongest examples of the possibilities for athletes categorized as “disabled.” For them, these so-called “disabilities” are simply more obstacles to be overcomeand they do so with flying colors.

WOVD and Sitting Volleyball

www.ipcformation.com — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 21:39:50 +0000

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.”However, some athletes do choose to participate in standing volleyball, although this variation of the sport is not practiced at the Paralympic Games. Players can choose whether to play with prosthetics or nota number of amputee athletes choose to balance on a single leg. WOVD Standing Volleyball is the only team sport that allows for standing by paralympic athletes, drawing in interested parties from a variety of disability groups and nations. WOVD Standing Volleyball uses modified Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) rules.

“Murderball” offers a glimpse into quadriplegic rugby

www.ipcformation.com — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 12:26:26 +0000

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.If you’ve seen the film and want to know more, check out Zupan’s memoir (authored in collaboration with Tim Swanson) titled Gimp: The Story Behind the Star of Murderball. Zupan’s humor and honesty is once again the star of the book, and while occasionally raunchy, there’s a good deal of emotional heft to it as well. Both media provide a distinct perspective on a sport and lifestyle that few Americans (besides those directly affected) are familiar with. In 2008, Zupan and his team won the gold medal at the 2008 Games. We can’t wait for the 2012 event.

Paralympic Shooting World Cup honors its heritage

www.ipcformation.com — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 17:34:34 +0000

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.