Paralympic Games Introduction

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Canada hosted Paralympic competition for the first time in 1976. The V Paralympic Summer Games, known at that time as the Olympiad for the Physically Disabled, were staged in Toronto immediately following the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. The event reflected the dedicated vision of pioneering organizers whose advocacy and activism increased competitive opportunities for disabled athletes in Canada throughout the late 1960's. Athletes at the Toronto Olympiad captured the public imagination with dynamic performances, and support for disabled athletes expanded rapidly across the nation in the decades that followed. Canada hosted Paralympic competition for a second time in 2010, when the X Paralympic Winter Games were held in Vancouver. Popular perceptions of disabled people in sport and society had changed dramatically since 1976. Channeling the dedicated vision of Canadian Paralympic builders and organizers, Canadians now celebrated Paralympians as elite athletes in their own right, whose achievements reaffirmed the value of sport as a test of human capability.

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