Australia at the Paralympics

Australia at the
Paralympics
IPC codeAUS
NPCParalympics Australia
Websitewww.paralympic.org.au
Medals
Ranked 6th
Gold
389
Silver
422
Bronze
394
Total
1,205
Summer appearances
Winter appearances

Australia has participated officially in every Paralympic Games since its inauguration in 1960 with the exception of the 1976 Winter Paralympics.

The Paralympic Games are held every four years, following the Olympic Games and are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). The Paralympic Games have been contractually tied to the Olympic Games since 2001, however, they have taken place at the same venues since the 1988 Seoul Summer Games and the 1992 Albertville Winter Games.[1]

In order to compete at the Paralympics, athletes must have an eligible impairment that leads to a permanent activity limitation, and athletes will compete in the classification appropriate to their impairment.[2] These impairments are physical, vision and intellectual impairments.

Paralympics Australia, established in 1990, is responsible for selecting and preparing the Australian Paralympic Teams for both the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games. This committee assists with funding the athletes and competition in addition to talent identification.[3]

Many of Australia's gold medals have come from Athletics,[4] a sport which has been popular amongst Australian Paralympic athletes, such as Tim Sullivan and Louise Sauvage.[5] The other sport from which many medals have come is Swimming.

Paralympic Flame alight in Sydney at the 2000 Summer Paralympic Games.

Australia has hosted the Paralympic Games on one occasion in 2000.[6] Sydney, the capital city of New South Wales hosted the Summer Paralympics from 23 to 31 October 2000.[6] There were 3879 participants from 123 countries across 19 sports and 550 events.[6] Australia won the most medals with 149 overall.[7]

  1. ^ "Olympic Games | Winter Summer Past and Future Olympics". www.olympic.org. Retrieved 2016-09-22.
  2. ^ "Classification | Australian Paralympic Committee". www.paralympic.org.au. Retrieved 2016-09-22.
  3. ^ "Mission & Goals | Australian Paralympic Committee". www.paralympic.org.au. Retrieved 2016-09-22.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference IPC Historical Results was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Athletics at the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games Results: Athletics - Events and Medallists". IPC Historical Results Archive.
  6. ^ a b c Picolin A, International Paralympic Committee. "IPC Historical Results Archive – Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games". db.ipc-services.org. Archived from the original on 2019-08-20. Retrieved 2016-08-31.
  7. ^ "Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games Results". IPC Historical Results Archive.