The IPC opens nominations for 2017 Media Awards and BP Courage Award

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has opened nominations for the 2017 Paralympic Media Awards and the BP Courage Award, accolades that will recognise achievements from the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

The Media Awards are presented biennially in partnership with Allianz and were first held in 2005 to honour members of the international media for their coverage of the Paralympic Games.

This year’s awards will be presented on Thursday 7 September in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and will recognise coverage of the Rio 2016 Paralympics spanning three areas: broadcast (TV and/or radio), written (print and/or online) and photo.

Previous winners have included British broadcaster Channel 4, the New York Times, Deutsche Welle, BBC World Service and Yahoo! Japan.

The biennial BP Courage Award recognises the immense courage of an individual, team or organisation at a Paralympic Games. This year it will recognise an individual, team or organisation that participated at Rio 2016 and fulfils at least one of the following criteria:

•The inner strength to redefine their own possibilities

•The impact on perceptions of what others may deem unexpected

•The resilience to truly excel in the face of challenges

In 2015 the award was presented to Dutch snowboarder Bibian Mentel-Spee for her role in successfully campaigning for snowboard to be part of the Paralympic Winter Games programme at Sochi 2014.

All IPC members, including National Paralympic Committees, Regional Organisations, International Federations and International Organisations of Sports for the Disabled are eligible to nominate for the respective awards.

Each organisation is entitled to submit one nomination per category and the closing date for entries is 12:00 CET on 3 March 2017.

An awards committee will select the winners and the awards will be presented at a glittering awards ceremony on 7 September 2017.