Sydney 2000

The 2000 Summer Paralympic Games will unfold in Sydney, Australia, from October 18 to 29. The Paralympics follow the Olympic Games to create the world’s biggest 60-day sporting festival, and the second largest sporting event in the world. Games will include 4,000 athletes from over 125 countries.

On October 5 at dawn, members of the Ngunnawal community in Canberra will create sparks to light the flame of the Games of the XI Paralympiad. From there, 920 torchbearers will carry the flame across Australia, spreading the message that although the Olympic Games are over, another first-class international sporting event is about to begin. First Torchbearer is Atlanta silver and bronze medallist and three-time winner of the U.S. Wheelchair Tennis Open, David Hall.

As the name implies, the Paralympic Games are parallel to the Olympic Games. The Paralympic Games is the elite competition for the world’s top athletes with a disability. The passion, grit and determination of Paralympians will inspire the world as they compete in the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games.

Canada, which is a world leader in sport for athletes with disabilities -- finishing among the top 10 of competing nations at Paralympic Games -- has sent a team to every Summer Paralympic Games since 1968 in Tel Aviv, Israel. This year, Team Canada will include 161 athletes with disabilities (final team selection was made July 1) and about 100 team officials and support staff.

This year, Paralympic medals will be awarded in 18 sports: archery, athletics, basketball, boccia, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football, goalball, judo, powerlifting, rugby, sailing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, tennis and volleyball. There is a total of 21 competition venues, 14 of which are located in Sydney Park at Homebush Bay.

Wheelchair rugby and sailing are both new sports in 2000, having been introduced as demonstration sports in Atlanta in 1996.
Sailing’s athlete classification system is based on five factors -- stability, hand function, manoeuvrability, visibility and hearing. Sailors race under the fleet racing format, meaning all boats race the course at the same time. In every race points are scored based on the boat’s finishing position. The boat that possesses the least amount of points over the competition is declared the winner.

Fencing, another sport in which Paralympic athletes will compete this year, offers an opportunity for competitors to display remarkable agility and skill. Although fencers compete in wheelchairs that are fastened to the floor, the athlete’s freedom of movement contributes to an activity that is as fast-paced as traditional fencing competitions.

Sir Ludwig Guttmann first introduced fencing for athletes in wheelchairs in 1953 and it was included in the Paralympic Games in Rome in 1960. Since then, the rules have gradually been adapted according to advances in techniques used to fix the wheelchair to the ground. This year, individual and team events are included in foil, épée (men and women) and sabre (men).

Paralympic athletes compete according to type of disability and their functional ability, and only compete against others with similar disabilities. Athletes compete within the categories of amputee, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, vision impaired, wheelchair and les autres (athletes whose locomotor disorders do not fit into the other groups). Once classified into these groups, athletes are then classified by their functional
ability. Some sports, such as basketball, use a system that groups athletes from different disability categories together according to their functional ability level.

The Paralympic/Olympic Village for the 2000 Sydney Games was completed ahead of schedule and is ready to host more than 20,000 athletes and officials from around the world. Constructed over a 36-month period on a site covering 90 hectares, the Paralympic/Olympic Village comprises 513 permanent houses, 355 apartments and 336 modular homes, built by 14 firms. The number of workers employed averaged 800 each day.

At the completion of the Olympics, the village will undergo a series of modifications to meet the demands of 7,500 athletes and team officials for the 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games.

After the Paralympic closing ceremonies, the village will be transformed yet again -- this time into a private housing community, complete with shopping centre and school, for the new suburb of Newington.

"The residents of the suburb, numbering some 5,000 people," says one Paralympic/Olympic organizer, "will be able to say forever that they live on the site of one of the world’s greatest sporting competitions."

(For more information about the 2000 Summer Paralympic Games, contact the national office of the Canadian Paralympic Committee, (613) 569-4333; fax: (613) 569-2777; e-mail: info@paralympic.ca; or check out the website at www.paralympic.ca.)