Paralympic History

PARALYMPIC CROSS COUNTRY HISTORY
In 1948, Sir Ludwig Guttmann organized a summer sports competition involving World War II veterans with a spinal cord injury in Stoke Mandeville, England. Winter disability sports started gradually after World War II, as large numbers of injured soldiers and civilians tried to return to their skiing activities. Early pioneers such as double-leg amputee Sepp Zwicknagl from Austria experimented with skiing using prostheses. Four years later, competitors from Holland joined the Stoke Mandeville Games and the international movement, now known as the Paralympics, was born. Olympic style games for athletes with a disability were organized for the first time in Rome in 1960. In Toronto in 1976, other disability groups were added and the idea of merging together different disability groups for international sport competitions was born. The first Winter Paralympic Games took place in Sweden in 1976.
The Paralympic Games have always been held in the same year as the Olympic Games. Since the Seoul Summer Games (1988) and the Albertville Winter Games (1992) they have also taken place at the same venues as the Olympics. On 19 June 2001, an agreement was signed between IOC and IPC securing this practice for the future. From the 2012 bid process onwards, the host city chosen to host the Olympic Games will be obliged to host the Paralympics as well.
“Para” comes from the Greek meaning (“beside” or “alongside”). The current use of the term stems from the Paralympics which refers to being the “parallel” Games to the Olympics. The word Paralympic may have originally been a combination of ‘paraplegic’ and ‘Olympic’, however with the inclusion of many different disability groups and the close association with the Olympic Movement, it now means a parallel Olympics to illustrate how the two movements exist side by side. The IPC does not formally use the term “Para-Nordic”. Canada has adopted the term which means “parallel” Nordic sport to indicate how it exists side by side with able-bodied Nordic sport.
Para-Nordic skiing includes both cross-country skiing and biathlon. In able-bodied skiing these two disciplines are governed by separate organizations with separate rules and competitions. In Para-Nordic they are both organized and governed by the IPC with integrated competitions and many of the same athletes participating and competing in both sports. For a great summary and more detailed information about both sports and their history please go to the IPC Nordic skiing website.
Para-Nordic
It was in the 1970s that cross-country skiing with a disability competitions started. In 1974, the first world championships were held in Grand Bornand in France, which featured alpine (downhill) and nordic (cross-country) skiing for athletes with amputations and visual impairments. Today, athletes from each disability class compete in each event. Visually impaired athletes ski with a sighted guide who directs them using an intercom or a loud speaker. Above-knee amputees use a single ski together with ski poles. Below-knee amputees use prostheses and compete in the same way as able-bodied skiers compete. Double-leg amputees or athletes with spinal cord disabilities use sit-skis. Athletes with arm amputations ski without poles.
The first classification system for the sport was developed in Scandinavia and was a medical system for skiers with amputations. At the time, other types of disability were not eligible for classification. In developing a system for use at the first Winter Paralympics, organizers wanted to get away from a medical classification system and use a functional system, but they ended up with a system based on equipment utilised by the skier instead. As the 1970s progressed, equipment improvements made it possible for skiers with spinal cord injuries to participate and a classification system developed for these skiers. By the 1990s, there were over ten Nordic skiing classes and a percentage system was developed to allow skiers with varying degrees of disabilities inside one of three groups (Standing, Sitting and Blind) to compete against each other. The skier’s time at the end of the race would be multiplied against a percentage to determine a time that allowed for fair within classification group comparisons. While the actual percentages change from time to time, this system to calculate a winner is still in use. Despite repeated efforts to move to a true functional mobility based classification dating back to the 1970s, medical assessment still took place during the classification process in the 2010s.