Paralympic Summer Games Firsts
Some interesting facts and figures from the Summer Paralympic Games.
- The FIRST Paralympic games was held in Rome, Italy, with 23 countries and 400 athletes participating. At the time, it was called the 9th International Stoke Mandeville Games, which are now recognized as the first Summer Paralympics.
- The FIRST time athletes not in a wheelchair participated was at the 1976 Paralympics, where blind and amputee athletes could compete. The first four Paralympic Games events were only open to wheelchair athletes.
- The FIRST Winter Paralympic Games were held in 1976 in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden.
- The FIRST time athletes with cerebral palsy were able to compete was in 1980.
- The FIRST time the term "Paralympic" came into official use was at the Paralympic Games of 1988 held in Seoul.
- The FIRST time events for disabled athletes featured at the Summer Olympic Games was in 1984, with the inclusion of wheelchair racing on the athletics program (it was an exhibition event). They continued to be part of the program until 2004. An exhibition event for disabled athletes - disabled skiing - was also included on the Winter Olympics program in 1984 and 1988.
- The FIRST disabled person ever to have won medals at both the Olympic and Paralympic Games is Hungarian fencer Pál Szekeres, who won a bronze medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics, then was disabled in a bus accident, and went on to win three gold medals and three bronze in wheelchair fencing at the Paralympics.
- The FIRST time city to host the Summer Paralympics twice was Tokyo (1964 & 2021).
Related Pages
- Winter Paralympics Firsts
- Summer Paralympics Trivia
- Winter Paralympics Trivia
- Summer Olympic Games Trivia
- Athletes who have competed in both the Paralympics & Olympic Games
- More Sports Trivia
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