IPC, 1992 - Present

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is the global governing body of the Paralympic Movement. Its purpose is to organise the summer and winter Paralympic Games and act as the International Federation for ten sports, supervising and coordinating World Championships and other competitions.

The Paralympic Games were first held in Rome, Italy in 1960 and featured 400 athletes from 23 countries competing in 13 sports. In 1976, the first Paralympic Winter Games were held in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden and attracted over 250 athletes from 17 countries.

Since the Summer Games of Seoul 1988 and Winter Games of Albertville 1992, the Games have taken place in the same venues as the Olympics due to an agreement between the IPC and IOC, formalised in 2000. Over the years the Paralympic Games have grown dramatically attracting more athletes, countries, sports, spectators and media coverage. The Games are now one of the world's largest multi-sport events.

Recent Paralympic Games:

• + Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games took place in 2021, after being postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It was held behind closed doors with no outside spectators for the first time. 4,403 athletes competed in 539 events in 22 sports.
• + Rio De Janeiro 2016 Paralympic Games marked the first time a South American city hosted the event. 4,342 athletes competed in 528 events from the 7th to the 18th September.
• + London 2012 Paralympic Games broke all records with more than 4,250 athletes from 164 countries taking part in 20 sports and a record 2.7 million tickets were sold to spectators.
• + Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games saw 3,951 athletes from 146 countries compete in 20 sports. Around 3.5 million spectators saw the Games in the venues and the cumulated worldwide television audience was close to 3.8 billion.