The 2012 London Paralympic Games

The attention of the world will be on London this summer for the Olympic Games, but as soon as the main event ends, another competition starts right afterwards. These are the 2012 Paralympics Games in London, the competition of the world's athletes with physical disabilities that promises to provide not only an excellent standard of sports but also a keen insight into the capability of the human body to overcome obstacles. The Paralympics should not be confused with the Special Olympics, the events held for athletes with mental deficiencies; the Paralympics are for physical disabilities only. They will begin the 29th of August and concludes the 9th of September, taking place in the same facilities as the summer games. It will be the first time that the same logo is used for both Olympic and Paralympic events. It should be noted that these two events are not exactly the same and have different judges as well as qualifying standards, though they do use the same location.

These games are held every two years, just as the standard Olympics. They follow both the summer and winter games as the main competition ceases, though it draws less attention. The first Paralympic competition began after the Rome Olympics in the 1960s and have been held ever since. Today, these elite sportsmen and women gather in the thousands, from well over a hundred different nations, in order to compete in nearly two dozen games ranging from wheelchair fencing to powerlifting. Though the objective of the Paralympics, as in the main events, is to compete and win medals for your nation, they also create the initiative of "Training for Life", the participation in year-round sporting events for greater physical fitness and higher social self-esteem is key for all disabled individuals.

The 2012 Paralympics in London will be the second-largest sporting event in the entire world after the Olympics themselves. There are a wide range of athletes competing with various disabilities. These range from physical handicaps such as dwarfish and multiple sclerosis to sensory disability such as blindness or deafness, and amputated limbs or spinal injuries. While these athletes may have disabilities that prevent them from having a normal life, they are still in peak physical condition and could outperform many people without disabilities.

The difference between a Paralympic event and an Olympic event may not necessarily be noticeable and some events may be very different. Archery, for instance, does not change in the Paralympics except that athletes are not expected to stand or rely on both arms in order to hit their targets; the distance and size of targets are not changed. In the instance of wheelchair rugby, however, the rules are significantly different. Wheelchair rugby is one of the most popular Paralympic sports due to the physical skill required to manoeuvre a wheelchair at high speed while also passing and checking opponents. Rules like the opening tip-off and time of possession differ from standard rugby; also, any points must be scored by crossing the entirety of the goal line with both wheels of a wheelchair in order to count. Goalball is a sport not featured in the Olympics, similar to soccer in that it must get past a goalie, but different in that there is no passing.