The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, is a periodic series of international multi-sport events involving athletes with a range of physical 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).
Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius is a South African former professional sprinter and convicted murderer. Both of his feet were amputated when he was 11 months old owing to a congenital defect; he was born missing the outside of both feet and both fibulae. 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.
Lauren Woolstencroft is a Canadian alpine skier and electrical engineer. Born missing her left arm below the elbow as well as both legs below the knees, she began skiing at the age of 4 and began competitive skiing at the age of 14. She is an eight-time gold medal winner at the Paralympics. In 1998, she was nicknamed "Pudding" by her teammates, due to her sweet tooth. Her life and achievements were celebrated in the Toyota ad "Good Odds" that aired just after kickoff during Super Bowl LII in February 2018.
Michael Gerard McKillop is an Irish middle distance runner. He competes in the T37 disability sport classification, as he has a mild form of cerebral palsy.
Toby Kane is an Australian Paralympian who won a bronze medal in the men's super G Standing at the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Torino and a bronze medal in the men's super G standing in his third Winter Paralympics at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi. Invited to join the Australian Winter Paralympic Development team when he was just 11, he became the youngest member of the Australian team in Torino at the age of 19. He had the honour of being Australia's flag bearer at the closing ceremony in Torino, and at the opening ceremony in Vancouver. Towards the end of the Sochi Games, Kane and Dutch snowboarder Bibian Mentel-Spee were named winners of the Whang Youn Dai Achievement Award, which is presented at every Paralympic Games for outstanding performances and overcoming adversity.
The Closing Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Paralympics took place on March 21, 2010, beginning at 7:30 pm PDT at the outdoor Whistler Medals Plaza in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada.
Adam James Hall is a New Zealand alpine skier and double Paralympic gold medalist.
Said Gomez is a Panamanian athlete. Visually impaired, having "lost his sight at a young age", he has represented Panama at five consecutive editions of the Summer Paralympic Games. He has won a total of eight Paralympic medals, of which three gold, and is the only Panamanian ever to have medalled at the Paralympic Games.
Olena Yuriyivna Iurkovska is a cross-country skier and biathlete from Ukraine, and a five time Paralympic Champion. She has competed at every Winter Paralympic Games since 2002, winning a total of five gold, five silver, and five bronze medals up to 2010. She also competed at the 2004 Summer Paralympics, as a member of the Ukrainian volleyball team.
Martina Monika Willing is a Paralympic athlete from Germany competing in field events. She is both blind and paraplegic. Until 1994 she competed in the F11 classification for vision impaired athletes; following her paralysis, she returned to competition as a seated thrower. Willing has competed and medalled in eight Paralympic Games - all seven summer games from 1992 in Barcelona to 2016 in Rio as well as at the 1994 winter games in Lillehammer. Complications during knee surgery following a fall at the Lillehammer Paralympics led to her paralysis.
Ntombizanele Situ, better known as Zanele Situ, is a Paralympian athlete from South Africa competing mainly in category F54 throwing events. Specialising in the javelin throw, Situ is a two-time gold medalist at both the Paralympics and the IPC Athletics World Championships and is the first female South African black athlete to win a Paralympic gold medal.
Pier Morten is a Canadian judoka and wrestler, and is the world's first deaf-blind black belt in Judo. Morten competed in seven Paralympic Games, four in Judo and three in Wrestling, and served as Canada's flag-bearer for the closing ceremony at the 2000 Paralympics. He won bronze in Judo in the -65 kg category in 1988, 71 kg category in 1992, and -73 kg category in 2000, and silver in Wrestling in the -64 kg category in 1984.
Mary Nakhumicha Zakayo is a Kenyan Paralympic track athlete. She competes in the T57 class for javelin, shot put and discus throw. Her first Paralympics was 1992.
Deanna "Di" Coates MBE is a sport shooter who has competed in eight Paralympic Games winning three gold medals.
The closing ceremony of the 2014 Winter Paralympics was held on 16 March 2014 at 20:14 MSK (UTC+4) at the Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi, Russia.
Bibian Mentel-Spee was a Dutch three-fold Winter Paralympics gold-medalist, and five-times world champion para-snowboarding athlete. Mentel won the Paralympic gold medal in the snowboard cross discipline in the 2014 and 2018 Paralympic Winter Games, as well as in the banked slalom in 2018, despite battling cancer nine times since the beginning of the century. She won her 2018 medals at age 45.
Ibrahim Al Hussein is a Syrian Paralympic swimmer who represented the Independent Paralympic Athletes Team at the 2016 Summer Paralympics and resides in Greece. He competed in the S9 50 m and 100 m freestyle events and served as a flag bearer at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Parade of Nations. He is a co-recipient of the 2016 Whang Youn Dai Achievement Award.
Dr Whang Youn Dai is a Korean physician known for her work on the welfare of people with disabilities and her advocacy of sports for those with disabilities. The Whang Youn Dai Achievement Award is named in recognition of her contributions to Paralympic sport.
Takayuki Endo is a Japanese ice sledge hockey player and rower. He was part of the Japanese sledge hockey team that won a silver medal at the 2010 Winter Paralympics. He was also Japan's national flag bearer there. He was awarded the Whang Youn Dai Achievement Award that year.
Debra Geraldine Alexander, is a South African clinical psychologist and a lecturer in psychiatry at the University of Stellenbosch in South Arica. She is also active in sports governance and administration in the fields of international parasports and triathlon.
