Parasports are sports played by people with a disability, including physical and intellectual disabilities. Some parasports are variations on existing able-bodied sports, while others such as goalball have been specifically created for persons with a disability and do not have an able-bodied equivalent. Disability exists in four categories: physical, mental, permanent and temporary. At a competitive level, disability sport classifications are applied to allow people of varying abilities to face similar opposition.
The Paralympic Games or Paralympics are a periodic series of international multi-sport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities, including impaired muscle power, impaired passive range of movement, limb deficiency, leg length difference, short stature, hypertonia, ataxia, athetosis, vision impairment and intellectual impairment. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, are held almost immediately following the respective Olympic Games. All Paralympic Games are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is the National Olympic Committee and the National Paralympic Committee for the United States. It was founded in 1895 as the United States Olympic Committee, and is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The USOPC is one of only four NOCs in the world that also serve as the National Paralympic Committee for their country. The USOPC is responsible for supporting, entering and overseeing U.S. teams for the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Youth Olympic Games, Pan American Games, and Parapan American Games and serves as the steward of the Olympic and Paralympic Movements in the United States. The US will next compete in the 2020 Summer Olympics.
The Beretta 92 is a series of semi-automatic pistols designed and manufactured by Beretta of Italy. The Beretta 92 was designed in 1975, and production began in 1976. Many variants in several different calibers continue to be used to the present.
Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius is a South African former professional sprinter who was convicted of murder in 2015. He was born missing the outside of both feet and both fibulae. Both of his feet were amputated when he was 11 months old due to this congenital defect. Pistorius ran in both non-disabled sprint events and in sprint events for below-knee amputees. He was the tenth athlete to compete at both the Paralympic Games and Olympic Games.
The United States Men's Para 7-a-side (Paralympic) National Soccer Team represents the United States in international competitions. It is operated by the United States Soccer Federation. The team finished seventh at the 2015 IPCPF World Championships. They have competed at several Paralympic Games, including the 1984, 1992, 1996, 2004 and 2012 editions. One of their best finishes was in 1996 when they finished fourth. Their head coach is Stuart Sharp. Comedian Josh Blue is one of their former players.
Jessica Tatiana Long is an American Paralympic swimmer from Baltimore, Maryland, who competes in the S8, SB7 and SM8 category events. She has held many world records and competed at four Paralympic games, winning 23 medals, making her one of the most successful athletes in Paralympic games history. She has also won over 60 world championship medals.
Melissa Stockwell is an American two-time Paralympic triathlete, swimmer and former U.S. Army officer. Competing in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in three swimming events, she returned to race in the 2016 Paralympic Games and won a Bronze medal in the inaugural triathlon event on September 11, 2016.
Daniel Repacholi is an Australian sports shooter who has competed at three Olympic Games. He has competed in the 10-metre air pistol, finishing in equal 36th place, and the 50-metre pistol, finishing 23rd, at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, he competed in the same events, finishing 31st in the 10 metre air pistol, and 40th in the 50 metre pistol. At the 2012 London Olympics he again competed in the two pistol events, finishing 28th in the 10 metre air pistol and 19th in the 50 metre pistol.
Jason Turner is an American sport shooter and Olympic athlete who finished fourth at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing in the 10 metre air pistol final. Bronze medalist Kim Jong Su later tested positive for propranolol, disqualifying him and upgrading Turner's position to third. Turner had finished on exactly the same score as his countryman Brian Beaman, but defeated him in a seemingly uninteresting shoot-off for fourth place that would later secure him the bronze medal.
Danielle Fong is an American rifle shooter who represented the United States at the 2008 Summer Paralympics. She is a holder of six national shooting sport records: two USA Shooting national records and four NRA national records.
Ashley Phillip Adams was an Australian Paralympic shooting medallist and cattle grazier.
Luke Cain is an SH2-classified Australian shooter who became a paraplegic after an accident while playing Australian rules football. He started competing in 2007, as the sport suited his disability, and has been a Victorian Institute of Sport scholarship holder since 2008. He first represented Australia internationally in 2009 at a World Cup event in South Korea. He has also represented Australia in two Paralympic Games including the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Bradley Mark is a New Zealand born Australian shooter who has represented Australia in two Paralympic Games.
Oksana Masters is a Ukrainian-American Paralympic rower and cross-country skier from Louisville, Kentucky. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, she won the first ever United States medal in trunk and arms mixed double sculls. She was also a part of the U.S. Nordic skiing team at the 2014 Winter Paralympics and the 2018 Winter Paralympics. She won two Paralympic medals in 2014 and five Paralympic medals in 2018, including two gold. She also competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in para-cycling.
Rico Roman is an American gold medal ice sled hockey player and Purple Heart recipient from Portland, Oregon who competed in 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia.
Sareh Javanmardi is an Iranian Paralympic shooter from Shiraz, Iran. Also known as Sareh Javanmardidodmani or Sareh Javanmardi Dodmani, she is the first ever female gold medalist from Iran to win in the shooting category of the Paralympics Games.
The United States competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016. The first places the team qualified were for three athletes in sailing events. They also qualified athletes in archery, goalball, shooting, swimming, and wheelchair basketball.
Iran competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016.
Gavin Sibayan is an American Paralympic football player of Filipino descent. A United States Army veteran, Sibayan enlisted in 2001 and would retire at the rank of Staff Sergeant with an Army Commendation Medal and a Purple Heart. In 2007, he was involved in three IED incidents, the third of which left him with Traumatic Brain Injury that resulted in a permanent disability.
