Sport A-Z: Judo

Judo, which first began as a martial art activity for practicing mobility, was included as a competitive sport at the Paralympic Games for the first time in Seoul in 1988. At Athens in 2004, women's weight categories were included for the first time. The sport is open to athletes with visual impairments in several weight categories. Contests last five minutes and the athlete who scores the higher amount of points wins. At the London 2012 games, 132 athletes competed in 13 medal events. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is committed to enabling Paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence and to develop sport opportunities for all persons with a disability from the beginner to elite level. In addition, the IPC aims to promote the Paralympic values, which include courage, determination, inspiration and equality. For further information, please visit http://www.paralympic.org. To watch videos on demand from Paralympic Games and to subscribe to ParalympicSport.TV, please go to www.youtube.com/ParalympicSportTV. Also, you may follow the Paralympic Movement on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ParalympicGames or on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/paralympic.