The Olympics are one of the most watched sporting events in the world, with the Summer Olympics in Paris reaching new highs for viewership. While these athletes are accomplishing incredible feats, arguably even more impressive accomplishments were achieved just weeks after the Olympics: the Paralympics.

What Are the Paralympics?

With the first organized competition recorded in July of 1948, the Paralympics are a series of sports competitions specifically for athletes with disabilities. The first competition was created for 16 injured military service men and women to compete in archery. Known at the time as the Stoke Mandeville Games, these games became the Paralympic Games in 1960 in Rome, Italy, and had grown to feature 400 athletes from 23 countries.

Originally, the Paralympics focused on summer sports, but they expanded to include the Winter Games in 1976 in Sweden. Now, both summer and winter competitions occur in the same cities as the Olympics at the same time, with a delay of 4 years between games.

Summer Paralympic Sports

The Paralympics have their own modified sports to compete in during the summer competition. The list below includes all sports showcased in the 2024 Summer Paralympics, and those marked with an asterisk (*) note sports without an Olympic counterpart.

• Para Archery
• Para Athletics
• Para Badminton
• Blind Football
• Boccia*
• Para Canoe
• Para Cycling
• Para Equestrian
• Goalball*
• Para Judo
• Para Powerlifting
• Para Rowing
• Shooting Para Sport
• Sitting Volleyball
• Para Swimming
• Para Table Tennis
• Para Taekwondo
• Para Triathlon
• Wheelchair Basketball
• Wheelchair Fencing
• Wheelchair Rugby
• Wheelchair Tennis

This Year’s Tournament

The 2024 Summer Paralympics features athletes from 10 categories of impairment:

• Impaired muscle power
• Impaired range of movement
• Limb deficiency
• Leg length difference
• Short stature
• Hypertonia
• Ataxia (affecting muscle coordination)
• Athetosis (such as cerebral palsy)
• Vision impairment
• Intellectual disability

The country with the most medals earned during the 2024 Summer Paralympics was the People’s Republic of China with a total medal count of 220. In second was Great Britain, with their total medal count reaching 124, followed by the United States with 105 total medals.

These athletes have overcome great challenges to achieve even greater accomplishments. As EyePromise® continues our mission to help people live life to its fullest potential with science-backed eye vitamins, we hope that one day, we won’t see “Vision Impairment” on the list.