The Qingdao International Sailing Centre is a sailing marina located on the former site of the Beihai Shipyard by Qingdao's Fushan Bay at Shandong Province in China. It was constructed for the 2008 Summer Olympics. It hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Sailing competitions. Wind conditions vary greatly from very light winds to +15 knots. During the Olympic competitions, fog was also an occasional factor.
Eighty athletes representing 25 countries in three keelboat classes - the 2.4mR, the SKUD 18, and the Sonar, took part in sailing in the 2008 Summer Paralympics. Sailing was held in two designated areas on the Yellow Sea, Qingdao, Shandong province, from September 8 to September 13.
The United States sent a delegation to compete at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, China. A total of 213 U.S. competitors took part in 18 sports; the only 2 sports Americans did not compete in were soccer 5-a-side and 7-a-side. The American delegation included 16 former members of the U.S. military, including 3 veterans of the Iraq War. Among them were shot putter Scott Winkler, who was paralyzed in an accident in Iraq, and swimmer Melissa Stockwell, a former United States Army officer who lost her left leg to a roadside bomb in the war.
Australia sent a delegation to compete at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. The country sent 167 athletes in 13 sports and 122 officials. It was the country's largest ever Paralympic delegation to an away Games. The team sent to Beijing was described as the emergence of the new generation of Australian athletes with 56 percent of the team attending their first Paralympic Games. The delegation's chef de mission was Darren Peters.
Ireland competed at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. Ireland sent 45 athletes, competing in 9 sports. The country's flagbearer at the Games' opening ceremony was Patrice Dockery.
Three athletes represented the Philippines in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, China. The 2-person keelboat sailing team of Pedro Sollique and Cherry Pinpin were based in the seaport city of Qingdao while Adeline Dumapong was in Beijing for the powerlifting event. The Philippine Paralympic delegation was headed by PhilSPADA-NPC, with support from the Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Olympic Committee.
Singapore sent a delegation to compete at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, represented by six athletes competing in four sports: swimming, sailing, equestrian and athletics. The country's flagbearer at the Games' opening ceremony was supposed to be Desiree Lim, a sailor. However, as the sailing events were held in Qingdao, it was Theresa Goh (swimming) who was the flagbearer on that day. The 2008 Summer Paralympics marked the first time Singapore had won a Paralympic medal of any kind.
Trischa Zorn is an American Paralympic swimmer. Blind from birth, she competed in Paralympic swimming. She is the most successful athlete in the history of the Paralympic Games, having won 55 medals, and was inducted into the Paralympic Hall of Fame in 2012. She took the Paralympic Oath for athletes at the 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta.
Alison Yu Chui Yee is a wheelchair fencer from Hong Kong. When she was 11 years old, she had bone cancer, leading to the amputation of her left leg. She began as a swimmer but switched to fencing at the age of 17. At the 2004 Summer Paralympics, she won four gold medals in both the individual and team events of épée and foil. She was the first athlete to win four gold medals in fencing in category A in 2004. At the 2008 Summer Paralympics, she represented Hong Kong again, but since the team matches were canceled, she only won one gold and one silver medal in the individual events.
The SKUD 18 is a class of racing sailing boat. It is a lead-assisted skiff with a tube-launched asymmetrical and a modern high performance stayed rig. The boat was created for trials held by the International Association for Disabled Sailing who were looking for a new two person boat for an additional medal allocated to sailing for the 2008 Paralympics.
Nicholas Salvatore Scandone was an American yachtsman who narrowly missed participating on the U.S. team at the 1992 Summer Olympics and won a gold medal as a paralympian at the 2008 Summer Games.
The Philippines made its Paralympic Games debut at the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul and has been fielding athletes up to the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro. Its athletes has won two bronze medals; Adeline Dumapong in powerlifting (2000), and Josephine Medina in table tennis (2016). The country has never won a Paralympic gold medal.
Australia competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Games in London, United Kingdom, from 29 August to 9 September 2012. The London Games were the biggest Games with 164 nations participating, 19 more than in the 2008 Beijing Paralympic. Australia has participated at every Summer Paralympic Games and hosted the 2000 Sydney Games. As such, the 2000 Sydney Games, regarded as one of the more successful Games, became a point-of-reference and an inspiration in the development of the 2012 London Games.
Liesl Dorothy Tesch AM is an Australian wheelchair basketball player, sailor, and politician. She is a Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing Gosford since the 2017 Gosford state by-election.
Daniel Fitzgibbon, is an Australian Paralympic sailor, who won a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. He won gold medals at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Paralympics with partner Liesl Tesch in the two person SKUD 18.
Sailing was added to the Summer Paralympic Games competition schedule at the 2000 Sydney Games. Australia has been represented since 2000 Games. In 2015, the International Paralympic Committee announced that sailing would be one of two sports dropped from the summer Paralympic Games program at the 2020 Tokyo Games. The parent body for sailing internationally, World Sailing, has stated its intention to seek re-inclusion on the summer Paralympic program at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
Helena Lucas MBE is a British Paralympic sailor.
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.
Singapore competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016.
Stacie Louttit is a Canadian Paralympic sailor. She became the first female Canadian sailor to win a medal in the Olympics or Paralympics by winning a bronze medal in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing in the 2-person keelboat (SKUD18) and also competed in the 2012 Summer Paralympics.
United States 
