PARALYMPIC AND PARA SPORTS NEWS

Former President and National Leader of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, has been the main promoter and developer of this major project. It is considered a gift to the people of Azerbaijan and the Paralympic Movement and set to open on 28 August.

Bonn, Germany - Four accomplished Paralympians and one Paralympic coach, will be celebrated as inductees of the Paralympic Hall of Fame, presented by Visa, this year. The ceremony will be held during the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games in China.

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.

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.

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.

Shortly before the start of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, the 2nd Singapore Boccia Invitational Open 2008 were recently held from 30 July to 2 August in Singapore at the Jurong East Sports Hall.

As the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games are only a few days away, more and more broadcasters are announcing their increased coverage and schedules for this year’s highlight. The Paralympics will be held from 6 to 17 September and are available for viewing all around the world.

Starting tomorrow, the Beijing 2008 Organizing Committee (BOCOG) will begin printing and selling tickets for events of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games in designated Bank of China locations in Beijing and co-host cities.

Two recent contests, held in conjunction with Petro-Canada’s Paralympic School Programme “It’s the Real Deal”, gave the winners the chance to display and distribute their independently designed work at the Paralympic Games.

The details for the 17th International Symposium of Adapted Physical Activity (ISAPA) were officially announced earlier this month. The ISAPA 2009 conference will be held in Gaevle, Sweden, from 23 to 27 June. The event is organized by the Swedish Development Centre for Disability Sport (SUH).

The Canadian Paralympic Congress this year will be held on 17 October in Ottawa, Ontario, and will focus on will on how the community serving Canadians with a physical disability can better service them by building the future of sport.

Bonn, Germany - From 1 to 4 August, the 2008 International Convention on Science, Education and Medicine in Sport (ICSEMIS) took place in Guangzhou, China.

Bonn, Germany - Today, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has taken further action to promote Paralympic sports and the Paralympic Movement by launching a Channel on YouTube, the leading online video community that allows people to discover, watch and share originally created videos.

The German Bertelsmann Group has released a video commercial for the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.

In an exciting first step to involve corporate support in raising awareness and promoting clean sport, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recently announced its first sponsorship arrangement with Lenovo.

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) produced in co-operation with one of its Gold Patrons, Allianz, six video clips that portray different Paralympic athletes on their way to Beijing.

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.

The Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee (VANOC) officially launched the Vancouver Venues’ Aboriginal Art Programme earlier this month. This ambitious programme for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games will provide a platform for Aboriginal artists in Canada to participate in the Games.

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.

The semi-finals of the 2008 Wimbledon Doubles Masters Series are now available on www.ParalympicSport.TV.