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.
The Paralympic Games are the most significant sporting event in the World that truly promotes social inclusion, contributing to the realization of the rights of persons with disabilities.
Table Tennis has been included in the Paralympic program since the very first Paralympic Games in Rome in 1960. It is one of the oldest Paralympic sports.
Paralympic Table Tennis is one of the sports that arose with the aim of integrating people with any kind of motor disability into society.
Nowadays, Table Tennis for athletes with disabilities includes more than 500 thousand players around the world, and about twenty different tournaments in this sport are held annually. Their number is steadily increasing.
Regulations and rules
Athletes with disabilities of all categories, with the exception of the visually impaired, can participate in two categories - standing and sitting. Men and women compete individually, as a pair and as a team. The Paralympic Games program includes two types of competitions - individual and team. The game consists of five games, each played up to 11 points, the winner is the athlete or a pair of athletes who wins three out of five games.
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) rules apply to Para Table Tennis competitions with minor changes for wheelchair athletes regarding the inning rules.
The ITTF oversees the International Paralympic Table Tennis Committee (IPTTC), which is affiliated with it.
Classification
Athletes are divided into ten classes, depending on their functionality. There is Class 11 for athletes with an intellectual impairment. The classification is carried out after testing the athlete’s motor abilities, assessing his muscle strength and locomotor limitations, as well as balance in the wheelchair and the ability to hold the racket. The smaller the number, the more limited the athlete’s movements. In classes 1 - 5, wheelchair athletes compete, in classes 6 - 10 - standing athletes.
Table Tennis has been taking part in sixteen Paralympic Games in a row and, moreover, is the most popular sport of the Paralympic.
Paralympic Movement in Ukraine
Ukraine successfully participated in 6 Summer and 5 Winter Paralympic Games. The Ukrainian Paralympic team first competed in the 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta (USA) and has won 1 Golden, 4 Silver and 2 Bronze Medals.
Since that time Ukraine has not missed a single Paralympics. The Ukrainian Paralympic team has won 464 medals in total (374 in Summer Paralympic and 90 in Winter Games).
Paralympic Medals of Ukraine in Table Tennis:
- 2000 Sydney (Australia) Ukraine ranked #21 with 1 bronze medals (Ivanova Nataliya)
- 2012 London (Great Britain) Ukraine ranked #18 with 1 silver medal (Khodzynskaya Antonina) and 3 bronze medals (Popov Mykhaylo, Klymenko Yuliya, Safonova Victoriya)
- 2016 Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) Ukraine ranked #4 with 2 gold medals (Kosmina Natalya, Didukh Viktor and Nikolenko Maksym) and 1 bronze medal (Lytovchenko Maryna).
We are proud of our athletes!
Paralympians are Ambassadors of Changes. Outstanding performances of Para athletes inspire and admire the whole world, changing the idea of many people about where the limits of what is possible for human endeavour.
Did you have an opportunity to visit Paralympic Games performances?
What do you know about the Paralympic Movement in your country?
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".
