The Paralympic Games
The conception of the Paralympic style Games occurred in 1948 in Stoke Mandeville, England, with Sir Ludwig Guttmann organizing a sports competition for the World War II veterans who had sustained spinal cord injuries during the war. An international movement was born four years later when competitors from the Netherlands joined the games. In Rome in 1960, the Paralympics, an "Olympic Style Games" was organized for athletes with disabilities. In 1976 in Toronto, additional sporting events for athletes with other disabilities were added, and the first Paralympic Winter Games were held in Sweden.
Today, the Paralympic Games are elite sports events for athletes with various disabilities. They emphasize the athletic achievements rather than the disability. The Games have grown dramatically and with the passage of the Ted Stevens Amateur and Olympic Sports Act of 1998, the National Governing Bodies integrate their Paralympic and Olympic efforts. The term "Paralympic" is derived from the Greek word "para" which means "next to" or "alongside" the Olympic Games, Just as the Summer and Winter Olympic Games take place every four years, the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games are also held in the same venue several weeks following the Olympics Games.
The next summer Paralympic Games will be held in London, England, August 29-September 9, 2012, with the Paralympic Regattas being sailed in Weymouth.
Disabled Sailing
Sailing for disabled athletes began on an international level in the 1980s. The first International Handicap Trophy Regatta was held in Switzerland, followed by others in Germany, the Netherlands and France. The 1992 World Disabled Sailing Championships were held in Spain alongside (but not part of) the Barcelona 1992 Paralympic Games. Today, the world’s best disabled sailors regularly train and compete with able-bodied sailors in ‘open’ international regattas. Sailing was introduced to the Paralympic Games as a demonstration sport in Atlanta in 1996. This led to its inclusion in the Games as a full medal sport in Sydney in 2000 in two fleets - the 23' Sonar, the three-person keelboat, and the 2.4mR, the one-person keelboat. In the 2008 Games, a third fleet, the Skud 18, a two-person lead assisted skiff was added. Each country must qualify for one entry in each fleet, with the exception of the host country, through a qualification process set by the International Olympic Committee and (ISAF), the International Sailing Federation.