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World Champions Crowned in Summer Sports

Female competitor (wheelchair) getting ready to start in a track event at the 3rd Athletics World Championships Male Table Tennis player returning the ball at the World Championships Athletics World Championships: three male athletes (amputee) competing in a track event
Female Tandem cyclists competing in a road event at the World Championships Mario Hochberg from Germany lifting 200kg at the Powerlifting World Championships Long Jump competitor (amputee) in action at the Athletics World Championships Male athlete (amputee) aiming to shoot at the Shooting World Championships
Photos: © Uwe Flad 2002

It’s half time between the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games and the Paralympic Games in Athens, which will be staged in September 2004. But half time does not mean relaxing or only training for elite athletes with a disability. On the contrary, it stands for fierce competition for the title of World Champion 2002.

In 20 sports,World Championships are held this year. They bring together more than 4,000 athletes to compete against each other and have started to be a series of superlatives.Most events are bigger than ever before—more participating countries, more athletes and a more professional event organisation.

But what really counts most in sport are results. The athletes’ performance in all events clearly shows a unique feature of Paralympic sports. There is a huge potential for improving performances. Athletics counted 76 new records, in Powerlifting 7 records were broken and Shooting registered a number of extraordinary high scores never witnessed before. The reasons are obvious: better training opportunities and coaching, more intense training schedules and a general growth of the sports, bring about results that in many cases were never thought of only a few years ago.

While many sports include athletes from different disability groups—like Athletics, Table Tennis or Powerlifting, other Championships like Judo or Football cater for one specific group, eg, visually impaired athletes in Judo and intellectually disabled athletes in ID Football. The multi-disability World Championships staged this year are governed by the International Paralympic Committee. Disability-specific events are under the rule of other organisations like the International Blind Sport Association.

In conjunction with the World Championships, the IPC sports also hold their biannual Sports Assemblies to vote on new rules, rule changes or regulations. These decisions are taken democratically by the National Paralympic Committees that widely practise the sport and by representatives of disability-specific sports organisations. In Athletics, it was agreed to compile common ranking lists for all disability groups in the future. Up to now, the leading criterion for the set-up of the ranking lists was disability, not sport. In Cycling, separate events for women were introduced for all classes. This decision will end the mixed event system, in which female athletes never had a real chance.

The following stories and pictures will summarise the Championships and will present the sporting heroes of the summer. But there is still more to come: the World Championships in Equestrian Carriage Driving, Goalball, Judo, Sailing, Sitting Volleyball, Swimming and Wheelchair Dance Sport will take place after the deadline of this edition of THE PARALYMPIAN and will be covered in the next issue.