PARALYMPIC AND PARA SPORTS NEWS
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More than 300 Chinese athletes who will be competing at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games are finishing up their preparation this week at the China Disability Sports Training Centre. With 16 days to go until the Opening Ceremony in Beijing, the athletes are among the 547-member China delegation, the largest in history, competing in all 20 events at the Games.
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The Ukrainian Paralympic Team was officially the first to arrive in the Chinese capital of Beijing late last week. The delegation of athletes and officials, which landed at the Beijing Capital International Airport on Thursday, spent less than eight minutes clearing through customs. Beijing, as the host of the 2008 Paralympic Games, had opened a special passage and assigned 12 policemen to help facilitate the procedure.
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For the first time during the Paralympic Games, a real-time blog with entries from the IPC President will be up and running for all those interested in the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games. The IPC President’s Blog will be a daily look into the Games activities, but more specifically, into Sir Philip Craven’s day.
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Bonn, Germany - Today marks the 60th anniversary of the first Stoke Mandeville Games. Following World War II, traditional methods of rehabilitation could not meet the medical and psychological needs of large numbers of soldiers and civilians with a disability. At the request of the British government, Dr. Ludwig Guttmann founded the National Spinal Injuries Centre at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Great Britain in 1944 and introduced sport as a form of recreation and as an aid for remedial treatment and rehabilitation.
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Earlier this month, the National Paralympic Committee (NPC) of the Netherlands joined together with the country’s National Olympic Committee to present the official Paralympic and Olympic Teams for the Beijing 2008 Games. This was the first time the presentation was organized with both Committees together and on such a large scale.