The 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, were held from August 16 to 25. It was the first Paralympics to get mass media sponsorship, and had a budget of USD $81 million.
The 2004 Summer Paralympics, the 12th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Athens, Greece from 17 to 28 September 2004. 3,808 athletes from 136 countries participated. During these games 304 World Records were broken with 448 Paralympic Games Records being broken across 19 different sports. 8,863 volunteers worked along the Organizing Committee.
Alix Louise Sauvage, OAM is an Australian paralympic wheelchair racer and leading coach.
Christie Dawes is an Australian Paralympic wheelchair racing athlete. She has won three medals in athletics at seven Paralympics from 1996 to 2021.
Wheelchair racing is the racing of wheelchairs in track and road races. Wheelchair racing is open to athletes with any qualifying type of disability, including leg amputees, spinal cord injuries, and cerebral palsy. Athletes are classified in accordance with the nature and severity of their disability or combinations of disabilities. Like running, it can take place on a track or as a road race. The main competitions take place at the Summer Paralympics which wheelchair racing and athletics has been a part of since 1960. Competitors compete in specialized wheelchairs which allow the athletes to reach speeds of 30 km/h (18.6 mph) or more. It is one of the most prominent forms of Paralympic athletics.
Priya Naree Cooper, is an Australian world champion disabled swimmer, winning nine Paralympic gold medals as well as world records and world championships. She competed in the Australian swimming team at the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Summer Paralympics with an S8 classification. She was twice the co-captain of the Australian Paralympic team, including at the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, and carried the Australian flag at the closing ceremonies for the 1992 and 1996 Summer Paralympics. Cooper has cerebral palsy and spends much of her time in a wheelchair. She attended university, working on a course in health management. After she ended her competitive Paralympic career, she became a commentator, and covered the swimming events at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
Jean Driscoll is an American wheelchair racer. She won the women's wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon eight times, more than any other female athlete in any division. Her wins in Boston included seven consecutive first-place finishes from 1990 to 1996. Driscoll participated in four Summer Paralympic Games, winning a total of five gold, three silver, and four bronze medals in events ranging from 200 meters to the marathon.
Michelle Stilwell is a Canadian athlete and politician. She represented Canada at four Summer Paralympic Games, as well as the 2015 Parapan American Games. She competed in wheelchair basketball before becoming a wheelchair racer, and is the only female Paralympic athlete to win gold medals in two separate summer sport events.
The 1996 Summer Paralympics were held in the United States city of Atlanta. Australia competed in 13 of the 17 sports, winning medals in 10 of those sports. At the 1996 Summer Paralympics, Australia had the second highest medal tally of any country competing. It won 42 gold, 37 silver and 27 bronze medals. It surpassed the 24 gold medals that Australia won at the 1992 Paralympics. The sports of athletics, swimming and cycling provided Australia with the majority of its medals.
T54 is a disability sport classification for disability athletics in the track and jump events. The class includes people with spinal cord injuries who compete using a wheelchair in track events. They have paraplegia, but have normal hand and arm function, normal or limited trunk function, and no leg function. This class includes CP-ISRA classes CP3 and CP4, and some athletes in ISOD classes A1, A2 and A3.
Rosemary Little is an Australian Paralympic athlete. She won a bronze medal in wheelchair racing at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, and has also competed in handcycling. She competed at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, her third Games, where switched from wheelchair racing to shot put. She has been selected to compete in the shot put at the selected for the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Para-athletics classification is a system to determine which athletes with disabilities may compete against each other in para-athletics events. Classification is intended to group together athletes with similar levels of physical ability to allow fair competition. Classification was created and is managed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), which is regularly published via its IPC Athletics Classification Handbook. People with physical, vision and intellectual disabilities are eligible to compete in this sport at the Summer Paralympics. The classification for this sport was created during the 1940s and for much of its early history was a medical condition based classification system. The classification system has subsequently become a functional mobility based one, and is moving towards an evidence-based classification system.
Hannah Lucy Cockroft is a British wheelchair racer specialising in sprint distances in the T34 classification and TV presenter.
Burkina Faso sent a delegation to the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, United Kingdom, from 29 August to 9 September 2012. This was the country's fifth appearance at a Summer Paralympic Games. The Burkinese delegation to London consisted of two athletes, Lassane Gasbeogo and Kadidia Nikiema, who competed in wheelchair cycling at the Brands Hatch race circuit in Kent. Neither athlete won any medals in their respective events, with the best finish of Burkina Faso at these Paralympics coming from Nikiema in the women's road trial H3 race with a sixth-place result.
Jade Jones-Hall, known previously as Jade Jones, is an English wheelchair racer, competing in T54 events, and a paratriathlete competing in handbike-to-wheelchair classifications. Jones competed in the 2012 Summer Paralympics in the 400m, 800m and 1500m. In 2018, she won the gold medal in Paratriathlon at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Dedeline Mibamba Kimbata is Congolese Paralympic track and field athlete.
Mauritius sent a delegation to compete at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7–18 September 2016. This was the fifth time the country had taken part in a Paralympic Games after its debut at the 1996 Summer Paralympics. The Mauritian delegation to Rio de Janeiro consisted of two athletes: wheelchair racer Brandy Perrine and short-distance swimmer Scody Victor. The nation's best result was tenth overall by Perrine in the women's 100 metres T54 event as both competitors did not progress to the final in their respective competitions.
Ann Cody is a three-time U.S. Paralympian who works at the United States Department of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor on the advancement of international disability rights. After debuting at the 1984 Summer Paralympics in wheelchair basketball, Cody won four silver medals in athletics at the 1988 Summer Paralympics. Cody also competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in wheelchair racing. At her third Paralympics, Cody helped set a world record in the 4 × 100 m relay at the 1992 Summer Paralympics while winning one gold and one bronze medal.
Gemma Collis is a British Paralympic wheelchair fencer who competed in the Paralympics in 2012, 2016 and 2020. Gemma is an 18 time World Cup medallist, and European silver medallist. She has qualified for Paris 2024. She is Chair of the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation's Wheelchair Fencing Athletes' Council and a member of the IWAS Wheelchair Fencing Gender Equity Commission.
Yen Hoang is an American wheelchair racer, who won two medals at the 2019 Parapan American Games. She came second at the 2021 Chicago Marathon and third at the 2021 Boston Marathon, and competed at the delayed 2020 Summer Paralympics.
United States
