The 1992 Summer Paralympics were the ninth Paralympic Games to be held. They were held in Barcelona, Spain. In addition, the 1992 Paralympic Games for Persons with mental handicap were held immediately after the regular Paralympics in the Spanish capital, Madrid.
France sent a delegation to compete at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. France sent 119 athletes, who competed in 13 sports: archery, athletics, cycling, equestrian, wheelchair fencing, powerlifting, judo, sailing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, wheelchair tennis. There were some competitors that competed in rowing which made its debut in the Games.
The Summer Paralympics also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, are an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy. The Paralympic Games are held every four years, organized by the International Paralympic Committee. Medals are awarded in each event, with gold medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, a tradition that the Olympic Games started in 1904.
Seychelles competed at the 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona, Spain, making their Paralympic Games debut. The country sent a two sportspeople strong delegation that included athlete Elvis Victor and swimmer Cyrl Charles. Neither sportspeople won a medal, and Seychelles would not compete at another Paralympic Games until the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio.
Athletics at the 1992 Summer Paralympics consisted of 239 events, 152 for men and 62 for women. Because of a tie in the first position of the men's 100m in class B1 and another tie also happened in the third place of the high jump event in the b2 class for men. 240 gold medals, 238 silver and 240 bronze were awarded.
Swimming at the 1992 Summer Paralympics consisted of 163 events, 88 for men and 75 for women. Because of ties for third place in the women's 50 metre freestyle B3 and men's 50 metre freestyle B2 events, a total of 165 bronze medals were awarded.
Australia has participated officially in every Paralympic Games since its inauguration in 1960 except for the 1976 Winter Paralympics.
Namibia made its Paralympic Games début at the 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona. These were the first Summer Paralympics to be held since the country's accession to independence from South Africa in 1990, and thus the first Games in which Namibia was able to take part. For its inaugural participation, the country sent just two athletes, both women, who both competed in discus, javelin and shot put. They did not win any medals.
The Seychelles made their Paralympic Games début at the 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona, with just two representatives. Cyrl Charles competed in swimming, while Elvis Victor entered the shot put. Neither man won a medal. Cyrl Charles also competed in 2016, aged 53.
El Salvador first competed in the Paralympic Games at the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, Australia. It has participated in the Summer Paralympic Games every four years since that time. El Salvador has never taken part in the Winter Paralympics, and until Tokyo 2020, no Salvadorian had won a Paralympic medal. In 2021, Herbert Aceituno became the first athlete to win a medal, earning bronze in powerlifting at the 59 kg category.
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.
Romania made its Paralympic Games début at the 1972 Summer Paralympics in Heidelberg, sending a single representative to compete in table tennis. He was eliminated in his first match. The country was then absent from the Paralympics until the 1996 Summer Games, where it was again represented by a single competitor. Romania was represented again by just one athlete in 2000, and two in 2004, but sent a larger delegation of five athletes to the 2008 Summer Games. Its most recent participation in the Paralympics was also its first in the Winter Games, in 2010. Its sole representative was Laura Valeanu, who entered two events in alpine skiing.
INAS was established in 1986 by professionals in the Netherlands who were involved in sport and wanted to promote the participation of athletes with mental handicap in elite sports. The organisations brand name is the International Federation for Intellectual Impairment Sport, promoting sport worldwide for athletes with intellectual disability, autism and Down syndrome.
Australia competed at the 1992 Paralympic Games in Barcelona for physically and vision-impaired athletes. Immediately after the Barcelona Games, the city of Madrid held events for athletes with an intellectual disability. The Madrid results are not included in International Paralympic Committee Historical Results Database. Australia finished 7th in the total medal count winning 76 medals. Australia competed in 13 sports and won medals in 3 sports – swimming, athletics and weightlifting. Australia finished first in the medal tally at the 1992 Paralympic Games for Persons with Mental Handicap in Madrid.
Norma Koplick is an Australian Paralympic athlete with an intellectual disability. She won a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Games in the women's javelin throw F20 event.
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.
Para-swimming classification is a function-based classification system designed to allow for fair competition in disability swimming. The classes are prefixed with "S" for freestyle, butterfly and backstroke events, "SB" for breaststroke and "SM" for individual medley events. Swimmers with physical disabilities are divided into ten classes based on their degree of functional disability: S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, S8, S9 and S10. The lower number indicates a greater degree of impairment. Those with visual impairments are placed in three additional classes: S11, S12 and S13. One more class, S14, is reserved for swimmers with intellectual impairment. A final class, S15, is for athletes with hearing loss.
In 1992, Spain had competitors in archery, wheelchair basketball, swimming, weightlifting, shooting, boccia, cycling, fencing, judo, tennis, 7-per-side football, table tennis and athletics.
Madelyn Ehlers was a Paralympic athletics competitor with an intellectual disability. She won two silver medals at the 1992 Paralympic Games for Persons with Mental Handicap held in Madrid, Spain.
Seychelles sent a delegation to compete at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 to 18 September 2016. This was the second time that the country took part in the Summer Paralympic Games after it made its debut twenty-four years prior at the 1992 Summer Paralympics and established a new National Paralympic Committee with assistance from UK Sport. Discus thrower Cyril Charles was the only competitor that the nation sent to Rio de Janeiro. In his event, the men's Javelin F56–57, he ranked fourteenth and last out of all the competing athletes with a personal best throw of 16.97 metres.
