United Arab Emirates at the Paralympics | |
---|---|
IPC code | UAE |
NPC | UAE Paralympic Committee |
Medals |
|
Summer appearances | |
The United Arab Emirates started actively participating in the Paralympic community during the 1990s. They made their debut at the 1992 Summer Paralympics. Since that time, they have won several Paralympic medals. The country had their debut on the international Paralympic stage at the 1990 Stoke Mandeville Games. Some of the country's Paralympic competitors are internationally ranked. The United Arab Emirates have competed at several other Paralympic events including the Arab Paralympic Games, Asian Paralympic Games, IWAS World Games, Stoke Mandeville Games, and World Semi-Olympic Championship. (The country has never participated at the Winter Paralympic Games.) The United Arab Emirates Paralympic Committee is the national organisation, gaining its International Paralympic Committee recognition in 1995 and have subsequently made winning medals and hosting events a priority.
The country made their Paralympic Games début at the 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona, by sending only one athlete (Ali Saif), in weightlifting. The country has competed in every edition of the Summer Paralympics since then, and Emirati Paralympians have won a total of nine medals: one gold, five silver, and three bronze. [1] Until 2008, Emirati competitors were all men, and entered only athletics and weightlifting/powerlifting. At the 2008 Games, however, the country entered its first female competitor, Thuraya Alzaabi, in discus and javelin [2] after previous having refused to allow women to represent the country at the Paralympic Games. [3] 2008 also saw an Emirati, Abulla Al Aryani, compete in shooting - the first time the country had entered a competitor in any sport other than weightlifting/powerlifting or track and field. [2]
The country's membership was pending at the 1993 International Paralympic Committee General Assembly in Berlin, Germany. [4] The country became a full member of the International Paralympic Committee in 1995, [5] when their membership was ratified at the 1995 International Paralympic Committee General Assembly in Tokyo, Japan. [4] Other countries that were accepted at that session alongside the United Arab Emirates included Kazakhstan, Bermuda, Ukraine, Ivory Coast, Former Yugoslavia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Qatar, Macedonia, Saudi Arabia, Angola and Bosnia Herzegovina. [6] In 2008, Mohammed Mohammed Fadel Al Hameli because the chairman of the United Arab Emirates Paralympics Committee [7] at a time when the organisation had a new board installed. The new leadership made it a priority to improve sporting facilities accessible for disabled athletes in the country as part of the country's preparations for sending their athletes to the 2012 Summer Paralympics. The Committee decided to focus on developing athletes in the following sports: shooting, powerlifting, and wheelchair racing. [8]
In 2010, the country hosted an international forum on Sports for People with a Disability. Participation and hosting of this event was inspiration for the country in trying to host an international Paralympic event. [7] The country is a member of the Asian Paralympic Committee, in the West Asia Sub Region. [9]
Athletes from the country have greatly improve since they first began competing in the Games, some of whom are currently internationally ranked. Amongst those are Mohammad Vahdani who is ranked fourth, Jasim Alnaqbi seventeenth and Mahmood Albalooshi who is ranked seventy-seventh in the Men's 100 m T54 event. In the Women's 100 m T54 event, Patricia Keller is ranked nineteenth, and Andrea von Bueren is ranked twenty-fourth [10]
The country took part in the 1999 Arab Paralympic Games held in Amman, Jordan. They won four gold medals, three silver medals and five bronze medals at the event, ranking tenth in total medal count amongst sixteen countries competing. [5]
The nation participated in the Asian Paralympic Games in 2010 in Guangzhou. Malaleih Hassan won a gold in the shot put event. Alzaabi Thuraya, Alzarouni Mohamed and Alaryani Abdulla Sultan also competed at the Games. [8]
In December 2011, the country will host the IWAS World Games, the games that succeeded the Stoke Mandeville Games. [8]
The United Arab Emirates competed at their first major disabled sport competition in 1990 when they participated in the Stoke Mandeville Games. They won a gold medal, and silver and bronze medals at the games. [5] They sent five athletes to the games, powerlifters and table tennis players. [8]
The United Arab Emirates have never taken part in the Winter Paralympics. [1]
In 1998, the country participated in the World Semi-Olympic Championship in the United Kingdom. The United Arab Emirates won two gold medals, two silver medals and five bronze medals at the event. [5]
There are several sport clubs for disabled athletes in the United Arab Emirates. They are the Abu Dhabi Disabled Sports Club, Alain Disabled Sports Club, Dubai Club for Special Sports, Althiqah Club for the Disabled and the Khor- fakkan Club for the Disabled. These clubs are important to the country in terms of developing Paralympic competitors for the nation. [8]
The 1988 Summer Paralympics were the first Paralympics in 24 years to take place in the same city as the Olympic Games. They took place in Seoul, South Korea. This was the first time the term "Paralympic" was used officially.
The 1976 Summer Paralympics, branded as Torontolympiad – 1976 Olympiad for the Physically Disabled, was the fifth Paralympic Games to be held. They were hosted by Toronto, Ontario, Canada, from 4 to 12 August 1976, marking the first time a Paralympics was held in the Americas and in Canada. The games began three days after the close of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.
The 1984 International Games for the Disabled, canonically the 1984 Summer Paralympics were the seventh Paralympic Games to be held. There were two separate competitions: one in Stoke Mandeville, England, United Kingdom for wheelchair athletes with spinal cord injuries and the other at the Mitchel Athletic Complex and Hofstra University on Long Island, New York, United States for wheelchair and ambulatory athletes with cerebral palsy, amputees, and les autres [the others]. Stoke Mandeville had been the location of the Stoke Mandeville Games from 1948 onwards, seen as the precursors to the Paralympic Games, as the 9th International Stoke Mandeville Games in Rome in 1960 are now recognised as the first Summer Paralympics. As with the 1984 Summer Olympics, the Soviet Union and other communist countries except China, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Yugoslavia boycotted the Paralympic Games. The Soviet Union did not participate in the Paralympics at the time, arguing that they have no disabled people in the country. The USSR made its Paralympic debut in 1988, during Perestroika.
The 1992 Summer Paralympics were the ninth Paralympic Games to be held. They were held in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. In addition, the 1992 Paralympic Games for Persons with mental handicap were held immediately after the regular Paralympics in the Spanish capital, Madrid.
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. 3,806 athletes from 136 National Paralympic Committees competed. 519 medal events were held in 19 sports.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has participated in every summer and winter Paralympic Games.
Saudi Arabia made its Paralympic Games début at the 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta, with two competitors in powerlifting. The country has participated in every subsequent edition of the Summer Paralympics, but has never entered the Winter Paralympics. All Saudis have competed in athletics or powerlifting.
Danielle Brown MBE is a British competitive archer and award winning children's author. She has competed in the Paralympic Games winning gold medals in Beijing and London and has also won medals shooting in the able bodied category including the Commonwealth Games.
Australia competed at the 1968 Summer Paralympics in Tel Aviv, Israel. The Games significantly expanded in 1968 when compared to previous years, as did the Australian team and the events included in the Games. Mexico City were originally to host the 1968 Paralympics, however, they were moved to Tel Aviv in Israel.
Australia sent a team to compete at the 1972 Summer Paralympics in Heidelberg, West Germany. Australian won 25 medals - 6 gold, 9 silver and 10 bronze medals in six sports. Australia finished 11th on the gold medal table and 9th on the total medal table.
Also known as the 13th Stoke Mandeville Games, the 1964 Summer Paralympics was the 2nd Paralympic Games. Hosted in Tokyo, the games ran from 8 to 12 November. Australia won a total of 30 medals and finished fourth on the medal tally behind Italy (3rd), Great Britain (2nd) and the United States (1st). Australia competed in 6 of the 9 sports at the Games, winning medals in each of those sports, but was most successful in the pool, winning a majority of their medals in swimming events.
Brian Frederick McNicholl, OAM is a New Zealand-born Australian Paralympic powerlifter, weightlifter, wheelchair basketballer, and athlete, who won five medals at six Paralympic games from 1976 to 1996.
Julie Elizabeth Russell is an Australian Paralympic athlete, powerlifter and wheelchair basketballer.
The Commonwealth Paraplegic Games were an international, multi-sport event involving athletes with a disability from the Commonwealth countries. The event was sometimes referred to as the Paraplegic Empire Games and British Commonwealth Paraplegic Games. Athletes were generally those with spinal injuries or polio. The Games were an important milestone in the Paralympic sports movement as they began the decline of the Stoke Mandeville Games' dominating influence. The event was first held in 1962 and disestablished in 1974. The Games were held in the country hosting the Commonwealth Games for able-bodied athletes, a tradition eventually fully adopted by the larger Olympic and Paralympic movements.
John Harris is a former Paralympic athlete from Wales competing mainly in category 5 throwing events. In 1984 he became the world record holder in the discus winning gold at the Summer Paralympics, following this with silver in the discus and bronze in the Pentathlon four years later.
The 2014 IPC Powerlifting World Championships was a competition for male and female athletes with a disability. With 360 competitors from over 60 countries, the event surpassed the number of entrants of the 2012 Summer Paralympics of London. It was held in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and ran from 5 to 11 April. The event was held in the Dubai Club for the Disabled.
United Arab Emirates competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's ninth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics.
The United Arab Emirates sent athletes to the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016.
Keith Bremner was an Australian Paralympic Shooter, who participated in other sports at International Paralympic Games. He competed at four successive Summer Paralympics from 1984, FESPIC Games, International Stoke Mandeville Games, World Shooting Championships, Oceania and Korean Shooting Championships for the Disabled. He was Chairman and long-term member of the Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Association of New South Wales, and long-term member of Wheelchair Sports New South Wales.