The Other Para-Olympics 2017
Six world-wide para-sport events you may never have heard of but whose stories are just as inspirational as those competing at the Paralympics
— 21st World Transplant Games
June 25 to July 2 in Malaga, Spain
The only event where you are disqualified if found negative for drugs,”
— British transplant cyclist Rich Smith.
Participants are not registered as disabled but are recipients of organ donation and must be taking their anti-rejection medicines to participate.
First held in Portsmouth, United Kingdom in 1978. The World Transplant Games were founded by surgeon Maurice Slapack to promote the benefits of organ donation to the general public and the benefits of sport and physical activity to transplant patients.
— 23rd Deaflympics
July 18 to 30 in Samsun, Turkey
“The deaf athlete views the disabled athlete as being a hearing person first and disabled second,”
— Deaflympic website.
Independent from the Paralympic movement, the organisation considers itself representative of a cultural and linguistic minority.
First held in Paris, 1924, just two weeks after the Paris 1924 Olympics. Then known as the International Silent Games. Rather than clap or cheer spectators are encouraged wave both hands to support the athletes.
— 7th IWAS Games
Date and host to be confirmed
“Founders of the Original Paralympic Games.”
— IWAS website
The IWAS (International Wheelchair and Amputee Sport) Games have a direct lineage to Ludwig Guttman’s Stoke Mandeville Games, now considered the genesis of the paralympic movement. The Rome 1960 hosting of the 9th International Stoke Mandeville Games was retroactively recognised as the 1st Paralympics.
Renamed in 2007, the Games are now advertised as working on a two year cycle. The last event was held in Sochi, Russia in 2015 but as of yet no date or venue has been officially publicised for the 2017 event.
— 3rd Invictus Games
September 26 to 30 in Toronto, Canada
These games have shone a spotlight on the unconquerable character of servicemen and women and their families — their invictus spirit
— Prince Harry
In 1944, Ludwig Guttman witnessed servicemen injured in World War II using walking sticks and a puck to invent the sport of wheelchair polo. It was this that inspired him to launch the first Stoke Mandeville Games in 1948.
70 years later the UK’s Prince Harry invited the wounded, injured or sick armed services personnel and veterans of 14 nations to the site of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics for the Invictus Games.
— 7th World Dwarf Games
August 5 to 13 in Guelph, Canada
“ If you’ve got a disabilty you’re normal, it’s just something that’s different.”
— Ellie Simmonds, paralympian
In the Paralympics, Les Autres (Dwarf) sportspeople compete in the T40 classification in athletic events and in the powerlifting according to weight class while swimmers compete against athletes of varying abilities and disabilities.
Since 1988, over 85 dwarf athletes from more than 20 nations have competed at the Paralympics but the World Dwarf Games allows competition over a full slate of 13 sports.
Another of the Other Para-Olympics to be inaugurated in Chicago, the Games first appeared in 1993.
— 11th Special Olympics World Winter Games
March 14 to 25 in Graz, Austria
“Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.”
— motto of the Special Olympics
You may have heard of the Special Olympics, after all its the only organisation officially authorised by the International Olympic Committee to use the sacred word but did you know about the Winter Games?
The Special Olympics are held on ‘sports for all’ rather than elite competition basis for athletes with intellectual disabilities.
Founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of President John F Kennedy, the first event was held in Chicago, USA in 1968 and the first winter version in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, USA in 1977.
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