As part of our advocacy, #OneAccesibility, we will share information about differently-abled persons and profile one location with accessible trails. Look out every week for this enlightening post.
Like @KashifMisidia explained in last week’s post, the Paralympics are one of the biggest sporting events around the world. They started as a way to help wounded World War 2 veterans rehabilitate, and over time turned into what they are today: an Olympic competition for people with disabilities.
The Paralympic Games were designed to emphasize the participants’ athletic achievements and not their disability, in a way of putting that into words, in the last few games they have emphasized that the games are about ability and not disability.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the organization that takes care of the Paralympics, established 10 disability categories athletes can have to compete in these games, some of them being limb deficiency, impaired muscle power, and intellectual disability, but not every sport allows people from all categories.
For example, Football 5-a-side only allows athletes with visual impairments including blindness.
This kind of Football is also known as blind football and has been featured at the Summer Paralympics since 2004, only with a men’s team. This sport is governed by the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) since 1996, and has some modifications of the FIFA rules as well as more specific ones for the Paralympics:
- It is played on a modified field, smaller and surrounded by boards.
- Teams only have five players, instead of eleven.
- Teams can use guides, people that stay outside the field and assists in directing players.
- Only the guides and the goalkeeper are allowed to be sighted or partially sighted, but sighted goalkeepers can’t have been registered with FIFA for at least five years. The other players must be completely or almost completely blind, and all of them must wear eyeshades to make sure it’s fair.
- The ball makes noise, allowing players to locate it by sound.
- Matches consist of two 25 minute halves with a ten minute break at half time, instead of two 45 minute halves and 15 minute break.
This video, from the Paralympic Games YouTube channel, explains it annd shows the rules perfectly:
Despite the differences, it isn’t surprising that Spain is considered the pioneer of this sport, or that Brazil is doing pretty well: they are currently the only team that has won gold in the four Paralympics the sport has been in, and it isn’t surprising either that Argentina and Brazil have been the only winners of the IBSA world tournaments.
Football 7-a-side also exists, and besides allowing players with visual impairments, athletes with cerebral palsy, brain injuries and other motor function disorders are allowed. This version has been featured at every Summer Paralympics since 1986 and 2016. In the first edition there were even two events! One for men in wheelchairs and one for men standing.
It also has some modifications:
- Matches consist of two 30 minute halves with a 15 minute break at half time.
- Teams have seven players.
- Both the goal and the field are smaller.
- Players are only allowed to throw in the ball using one hand.
In this version, the Netherlands and Ukraine have won the most gold. Again, not surprising!
Naturally, athletes have as much passion for the sport as people from their countries, or even more! In this article you can read a great phrase that one of the former captains of Spain’s 5-a-side team says about football: “You do not need to see but feel football”
The athlete, who lost his eyesight when he was 12, thinks it’s very similar to playing-able bodied football, and it seems to me like the passion and enjoyment people get from it, it sure is.
You might know that Argentina is very passionate when it comes to football, if not, you can read my post Argentina’s Passion for Football to know just how passionate we are about it.
And of course, we are passionate for our Paralympic team too! When the Paralympics or other competition that involves them happens, there’s always news about how they are doing, but the team, as does the Paralympics, does deserve more recognition.
Our team’s awesome name is the Bats ?, and they are just as awesome as their name. Here they are at the last world cup:
And in this article you can read about a Bats member’s hope of winning gold soon, and what it would mean to him. Paralympic athletes like him are inspiring to many, showing determination to overcome mental and physical obstacles and prove that what few things are impossible. The Paralympics also raise awareness of different disabilities and changes the perception of people that have them, like their motto says, focusing on the ability instead of the disability.
Do you know how your country’s Paralympic football team is called? Let us know in the comments if you do!
If you have a question, suggestion or contribution, feel free to comment below. You can read last week’s roundup article here and check the list of our other articles under "Accessibility Uncovered".
I’m glad you enjoyed it!