1984 Summer Paralympics

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VII Paralympic Games
File:New York 1984 Paralympics.jpg
Host city New York, United States
Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom
Nations participating 45 (USA)
41 (UK)
Athletes participating 1800 (USA)
1100 (UK)
Events ~300 in 15 sports (USA)
603 in 10 sports (UK)
Opening ceremony June 17 (USA)
July 22 (UK)
Closing ceremony June 30 (USA)
August 1 (UK)
Officially opened by President Ronald Reagan (USA)
Charles, Prince of Wales (UK)
Paralympic Stadium Mitchel Athletic Complex (USA)
Stoke Mandeville Stadium (UK)
Summer:
<  Arnhem 1980 Seoul 1988  >
Winter:
<  Innsbruck 1984 Innsbruck 1988  >

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The 1984 International Games for the Disabled, canonically the 1984 Summer Paralympics were the seventh Paralympic Games to be held. They were in fact two separate competitions - one in Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom for wheelchair athletes with spinal cord injuries and the other at the Mitchel Athletic Complex and Hofstra University in Long Island, New York, United States of America for wheelchair and ambulatory athletes with cerebral palsy, amputees, and les autres [the others] (conditions as well as blind and visually impaired athletes). Stoke Mandeville had been the location of the Stoke Mandeville Games from 1948 onwards, seen as the precursors to the Paralympic Games.[1] As with the 1984 Summer Olympics, the Soviet Union and other communist countries except China, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Yugoslavia boycotted the Paralympic Games.[2] Furthermore, Odeda Rosenthal, a Professor of Humanities at a local community college on Long Island and translator for the Austrian team highlighted a number of problems at the games in a series of articles.[3] She highlighted a number of issues such as poor communication, administrative hiccups and even bus drivers not knowing the routes to scheduled events that even caused some teams to miss events completely.[3] Rosenthal continues by slamming the work by the Police Chief claiming the Chief "took the opposite tack of anything that was suggested to sort out the mess".[3] However, overall reports and the general impression given off by the games was a friendly atmosphere and volunteers trying their hardest under difficult conditions.[3]

Mascot

The mascot for the 1984 Paralympic Games was Dan D. Lion, which was designed by an art teacher Maryanne McGrath Higgins.[4]

Opening Ceremonies

Patchy showers greeted the 14000 spectators packed into the Mitchel Park stadium for the 2pm start of the New York Games opening ceremony on the 19th June.[3] New York radio personality William B. Williams introduced everyone with a welcome speech.[3] Entertainers such as Bill Buzzeo and the Dixie Ramblers, Richie Havens, The New Image Drum and Bugle Corps, the ARC Gospel Chorus and the Square Dance Extravaganza followed the introduction speech.[3]

Closing Ceremonies[3]

New York

Commander Archie Cameron, President of ICC officially closed the games with a short speech acknowledging the athletes and the next host nation, Seoul, South Korea. The flags of the games were then lowered and American athletes carried the flags back to the reviewing stand where they were handed over the President of the Games, Dr William T. Callahan.[3]

Sports

Competitors were divided into five disability-specific categories: amputee, cerebral palsy, visually impaired, wheelchair, and les autres (athletes with physical disabilities that had not been eligible to compete in previous Games). The wheelchair category was for those competitors who used a wheelchair due to a spinal cord disability. However some athletes in the amputee and cerebral palsy categories also competed in wheelchairs. Within the sport of athletics, a wheelchair marathon event was held for the first time. The Trails for the first wheelchair event to be held at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games was held in conjunction with the New York Games. However, despite the long and established history of using "paralympic" terminology, in the United States the US Olympic Committee prohibited the Games organizers from using the term. The seventeen contested sports are listed below, along with the disability categories which competed in each.[5]

Medal table

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Main article: 1984 Summer Paralympics medal table

The host nations, Great Britain and the United States, are highlighted

 Rank  Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 United States 137 131 129 397
2 Great Britain 107 112 112 331
3 Canada 87 82 69 238
4 Sweden 83 43 34 160
5 West Germany 79 76 75 230
6 France 71 69 45 185
7 Netherlands 55 52 28 135
8 Australia 49 54 51 154
9 Poland 46 39 21 106
10 Denmark 30 13 16 59
11 Norway 29 31 30 90
12 Belgium 22 22 14 58
13 Spain 22 10 12 44
14 Ireland 20 15 31 66
15 Finland 18 14 26 58
16 Switzerland 18 13 12 43
17 Austria 14 20 10 44
18 Hungary 12 12 3 27
19 Israel 11 21 12 44
20 Yugoslavia 11 9 11 31
21 Italy 9 19 14 42
22 Japan 9 7 8 24
23 New Zealand 8 10 7 25
24 Brazil 7 17 4 28
25 Mexico 6 14 17 37
26 Portugal 4 3 7 14
27 Hong Kong 3 5 9 17
28 China 2 12 8 22
29 Trinidad and Tobago 2 0 1 3
30 Luxembourg 1 4 1 6
31 Kuwait 1 3 4 8
32 Burma 1 2 1 4
33 Egypt 1 1 5 7
34 Kenya 1 1 1 3
35 East Germany 0 3 1 4
36 Iceland 0 2 8 10
37 India 0 2 2 4
South Korea 0 2 2 4
39 Jordan 0 1 2 3
Zimbabwe 0 1 2 3
41 Bahamas 0 1 1 2
Indonesia 0 1 1 2
43 Bahrain 0 0 2 2
44 Argentina 0 0 0 0
Ecuador 0 0 0 0
Faroe Islands 0 0 0 0
Greece 0 0 0 0
Guatemala 0 0 0 0
Jamaica 0 0 0 0
Liechtenstein 0 0 0 0
Malta 0 0 0 0
Papua New Guinea 0 0 0 0
Thailand 0 0 0 0
Venezuela 0 0 0 0
Total (54 NPCs) 973 946 848 2767

Participating delegations

Fifty-four delegations took part in the 1984 Paralympics.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "2012 – The Paralympics come home", BBC, July 4, 2008
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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