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The Winter Paralympic Games is an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy. The Winter Paralympic Games are held every four years directly following the Winter Olympic Games. The Winter Paralympics are also hosted by the city that hosted the Winter Olympics. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) oversees the Winter Paralympics. Medals are awarded in each event: with gold medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, following the tradition that the Olympic Games started in 1904. The Winter Paralympics began in 1976 in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. Those Games were the first Paralympics (Summer or Winter) that featured athletes other than wheelchair athletes. The Games have expanded and grown to be (along with the Summer Games) part of the largest international sporting event after the Olympic Games. Given their expansion the need for a very specific classification system has arisen. This system has also given rise to controversy and opened the door for cheating. Winter Paralympians have also been convicted of steroid use and other forms of cheating unique to Paralympic athletes, which has tainted the integrity of the Games. ==History== The origins of the Winter Paralympics are similar to the Summer Paralympics. Injured soldiers returning from World War II sought sports as an avenue to healing. Organized by Dr. Ludwig Guttmann, sports competitions between British convalescent hospitals began in 1948 and continued until 1960 when a parallel Olympics was held in Rome after the 1960 Summer Olympics. Over 400 wheelchair athletes competed at the 1960 Paralympic Games, which became known as the first Paralympics.〔 Sepp Zwicknagl, a pioneer of snow sports for disabled athletes, was a double-leg amputee Austrian skier who experimented skiing using prosthetics. His work helped pioneer technological advances for people with disabilities who wished to participate in winter sports.〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=International Paralympic Committee )〕 Advances were slow and it was not until 1974 that the first official world ski competition for physically impaired athletes, featuring downhill and a cross-country skiing, was held.〔 The first Winter Paralympics were held in 1976 at Örnsköldsvik, Sweden from February 21–28. Alpine and Nordic skiing for amputees and visually impaired athletes where the main events but ice sledge racing was included as a demonstration event.〔 There were 198 participating athletes from 16 countries,〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=International Paralympic Committee )〕 and it was the first time athletes with impairments other than wheelchair athletes were permitted to compete.〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=The Government of Canada )〕 Starting in 1988 the Summer Paralympics were held in the same host city as the Summer Olympic Games. This was due to an agreement reached between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). The 1992 Winter Paralympics were the first Winter Games to use the same facilities as the Winter Olympics.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Winter Paralympic Games」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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