Paraolympics 2008 in Beijing.

The Paralympics Games are a biannual event that follow each of the summer and winter Olympic Games and are geared towards athletes with a disability, this year it will follow the Beijing Olympics.

The Chinese organisers is now recruiting a record amount of volunteers to help organize and prepare for the event, the amount of volunteers may reach up to 120,000 not to bad but still a small amount compared to how many lives there. With the highest number of sports competitions in history the Beijing Paralympics now have 20 different games in motion.

But where did paraolympics come from? In 1948, Sir Ludwig Guttmann organized a sports competition involving World War II veterans with a spinal cord injury in Stoke Mandeville, England. Four years later, competitors from the Netherlands joined the games and an international movement was born.

Olympic style games for athletes with a disability were organized for the first time in Rome in 1960; officially called the 9th Annual International Stoke Mandeville Games, these are considered to be the first Paralympic Games, now called Paralympics. In Toronto in 1976, other disability groups were added and the idea of merging together different disability groups for international sport competitions was born. In the same year, the first Paralympic Winter Games took place in Sweden.

Today, the Paralympics are elite sport events for athletes from six different disability groups. They emphasize, however, the participants' athletic achievements rather than their disability. The movement has grown dramatically since its first days. The number of athletes participating in Summer Paralympic Games has increased from 400 athletes from 23 countries in Rome in 1960 to 3806 athletes from 136 countries in Athens in 2004.

U.S. Paralympics national team coaches and athletes train the veterans for events like archery, sailing and volleyball, and organize competitions for participants at the end of the program, which is funded by the United States Olympic Committee.

In the 1996 Atlanta Games athletes with intellectual disabilities were allowed to participate for the first time. However following cheating in the 2000 Sydney Games, in which non-disabled athletes were entered in the Spanish Basketball ID team, such athletes were banned by the IPC. Following an anti-corruption drive, the International Sports Federation for Persons with an Intellectual Disability (INAS-FID) lobbied to have these athletes reinstated. Beginning in 2004, athletes with an intellectual disability began to be re-integrated into Paralympic sport competitions, although they remain excluded from the Paralympic Games.

Hong Kong will hold the equestrian events at the site of the Hong Kong Sports Institute in Fo Tan, Sha Tin. The facilities of the Sports Institute may be moved to Wu Kai Sha. This will be the second time the same season of Olympic Games has been hosted by two National Olympic Committees.

Brett Cross was a member of the Australian football team competing at the Cerebral Palsy World Cup in November. The team is now hoping to qualify for the Beijing Para Olympics in 2008. Brett coaches junior Toukley Gorokan soccer club teams.

Alberta Paralympic athletes Ross Norton, two-time paralympic gold medallist in wheelchair basketball and Canadian Paralympics Committee athlete ambassador, Tara Scade, wheelchair basketball athlete, and Kris Vriend, women's shot put and discus athlete, were all on hand to bring awareness to the Paralympics movement during the Alberta stop on the cross-country tour, designed to salute Alberta athletes.

The emblem for Paralympics in China combines elements of traditional Chinese society - a red seal and a calligraphic word for jing ("national capital") with athletic features. According to the International Olympic Committee, the emblem is the first of the modern Olympics to use red as the dominant colour, an important colour for the Chinese people throughout its history. The open arms of the calligraphic word symbolizes the invitation of China to the world to share in its culture.

Each come together and practice as hard as they can to measure up against the best groups of athletes the world can offer. This year Beijing China have been honored, being offered to host two of the most important sport events of the world.

The program funded by the USOC, Visa and McDonald's — is not just about elite athletes with Paralympics potential. More than 400 veterans are involved at levels more recreational than Olympian. Kerry Miller competes in volleyball, she's one of 17 wounded Iraq veterans aiming for a spot in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics with the support of a U.S. Olympic Committee program that strives to turn warriors into competitive athletes. She's also the only swimmer in the group and one of two women.

Disabled South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius has been challenging rules that prevents him from competing in the Beijing Olympics. He's the current world record holder in the Para Olympics 400 meters, would it not be fair to allow a disabled person to compete against fully functional individuals if he/she feels they are good enough? So for the good news, he is now able to do so after getting a court victory that allows him to try out to qualificate for the national team. "Now I can definitely say the truth has come out. I have the opportunity once again to chase my dream of the Olympics, if not 2008, in 2012." "I've missed the whole South African season. The time period is very short. It's going to be very difficult for me to qualify (for the able-bodied Games)," he said. If he does not qualify he will at least Pistorius also expects to compete in Beijing at the Sept. 6-17 Paralympic Games. He could be one of the first to compete in both Olympics, would that not be a fairy tale story.

He is double amputee and is still considered the fastest man with no legs in the world.... Who says life ends without legs...

I would give my big thumbs up for any of these competitors who has a great spirit that many of us two legged people lack, so good luck to all these competitors competing for greatness and showing good spirits.

// TomYam