Paralympics Edition – Passport to Paris

Staying true to its Greek roots, “Paralympic” is derived from the Greek word “para”, which means “beside,” and the word Olympics. The etymology represents how the two movements exist side-by-side with all competing athletes continuing to push humanity’s physical limitations.

As for this year’s Games, the fun begins with today’s 2 p.m. ET Opening Ceremony (airing on NBC in the U.S. and CBC in Canada) and will conclude with the Closing Ceremony on September 8th.

• More than 4K Paralympians representing 169 countries will compete in 549 medal events across 22 sports. Events include everything from para swimming and para athletics to sitting volleyball, boccia, and wheelchair basketball.

Unlike the Olympics, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) uses a classification system to determine how athletes are grouped for competition. There are 10 disability classifications: eight physical impairment categories (including loss of limb and impaired muscle power), one visual impairment category, and one intellectual impairment category.

• Some sports, including para athletics and para swimming, provide opportunities for athletes who fall under any of the 10 Eligible Impairments while other sports, like goalball for example, are specific to one Eligible Impairment — in this case, vision impairment.

Within the categories, athletes are further classified by level of function, called Sport Class, to ensure that athletes with similar levels of ability compete against each other. Each Sport Class is represented by a letter and number combo.

• Track events, for example, start with the letter T. The aforementioned Woodhall competes in the T62 classification, which refers to a track athlete with a double leg below the knee amputation who runs with prostheses (62).

Compared to its ancient Olympic counterpart, the Paralympics are a relatively new competition. But the first iterations of what would become the Games started decades before the Paralympics debuted in 1960. Let’s dig in.

Berlin, Germany was the home of the first recorded instance of organized adapted sport, offering sports clubs for the deaf as early as 1888. But adapted sport wasn’t widely introduced until after World War II as a way to promote reintegration for veterans who had been injured in wartime.

• The man behind the post-war movement was German-British neurologist, Sir Ludwig Guttmann, who championed the use of sport for rehabilitation and organized the first competition for wheelchair athletes in 1948.

• Titled the Stoke Mandeville Games, the first iteration featured 16 former servicewomen and men, competing in archery. And the event was a bull’s eye, becoming the International Stoke Mandeville Games four years later and laying the groundwork for the Paralympics.

In 1960, the Paralympics made their debut in Rome, Italy, featuring 400 athletes from 23 countries competing in eight sports. Following the Olympic standard of a Games every four years, the Paralympics have taken place in the same city as their Olympic counterpart since 1988.

• As the Paralympics continued to evolve, new events and classifications were added to the program to expand the pool of eligible athletes. The most recent additions? Para badminton and para taekwondo, both of which debuted at Tokyo 2020. The more the merrier.

🇺🇸 Oksana Masters, para cycling: With a trophy case that already boasts 17 paralympic medals, Masters is a six-time, multi-sport paralympian, topping the podium at both the summer and winter Games in everything from rowing to skiing. Jill of all trades, master of…all of them too.

🇮🇳 Avani Lekhara, shooting para sport: Making her second Paralympic appearance, Lekhara isn’t one to shy away from the biggest moments — she won gold in her debut in Tokyo, breaking the Paralympic record in the SH1 standing 10m air rifle event and matching the world record.

🇳🇱 Diede de Groot, wheelchair tennis: Dominating the iconic clay courts at Roland-Garros is old hat for de Groot, who’s snagged five French Open titles among 18 other Grand Slam wins. And she comes by her on-court success honestly, a Dutch woman has won every wheelchair tennis gold since the event was added to the program in 1988. There’s just something in the water.

🇨🇦 Patrick Anderson, wheelchair basketball: Widely considered to be the greatest wheelchair hooper of all time, Anderson’s spearheaded Canada to three Paralympic golds and one silver over his illustrious career. Though the red and white aren’t medal faves in Paris, expect string music from Anderson on and off the court.

🇮🇹 Simone Barlaam, para swimming: Move over Léon Marchand, there’s a new swimming sensation diving into the French pools. A four-time Paralympic medalist already, Barlaam swam a world record at last year’s World Championships with his sights set on defending his Paralympic gold — and having a good time. It’s the petit plaisirs, after all.

🇨🇦 Jacob Wassermann, para rowing: One of only 13 people to survive the horrific Humboldt bus crash in 2018, Wassermann, now paralyzed from the waist down, is making his Paralympic debut in Paris after taking up para rowing less than two years ago.

• Since then, Wassermann’s rise in the sport has been meteoric, winning a silver medal in March’s Paralympic qualification regatta to earn his spot on Team Canada.

🇮🇳 Sheetal Devi, wheelchair archery: Another rising star in Paralympic sport, Devi’s debut season as an international archer was nothing short of spectacular. The 17-year-old took home double gold at the Asian Para Games last year, making her the first armless women’s archery champion in history.

🇫🇷 Maud Lefort, para badminton: It’s been a flick-ing fantastic year for the French prodigy, who became a two-time European champ at just 17 years old, securing the singles and doubles title earlier last year, before winning bronze at February’s World Championship. Now, the hometown hero is hoping to add a Paralympic podium to her résumé.

🇳🇬 Kayode Alabi and Christiana Alabi, para table tennis: Table tennis’ power couple, the Alabis tied the knot in 2022 and are hoping to add some new bling to their joint assets. The top-ranked singles players from Africa, Christiana won silver at the 2022 Commonwealth games while Kayode took home two golds from last year’s African Para Championships.

🇦🇺 Alexa Leary, para swimming: After a devastating training accident in 2021, the elite triathlete with Olympic dreams turned her attention to para swimming. The rest is history: Leary won a gold and silver at her debut World Championships last year en route to qualifying for her first Paralympics. Never back down, never what?