1996 Summer Paralympics

X Paralympic Games

Host city	Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Motto	The Triumph of the Human Spirit
Nations	104
Athletes	3,259 (2,469 men, 790 women)
Events	508 in 20 sports
Opening	August 16
Closing	August 25
Opened by	Vice President Al Gore
Cauldron	Mark Wellman
Stadium	Centennial Olympic Stadium
Summer ← Barcelona 1992 Sydney 2000 → Winter ← Lillehammer 1994 Nagano 1998 → 1996 Summer Olympics

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The 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, United States were held from August 16 to 25. It was the first Paralympics to get mass media sponsorship,^[1] and had a budget of USD $81 million.^[2]

It was the first Paralympic Games where International Sports Federation for Persons with an Intellectual Disability athletes were given full medal status.^[3]

Symbol and mascot of the games[]

1996 Paralympic Mascot, Blaze the Phoenix

The mascot for the Paralympic Summer Games in Atlanta 1996 was Blaze. Blaze was created by Trevor Stone Irvin of Irvin Productions in Atlanta.

Blaze is a phoenix, a mythical bird that rises from ashes to experience a renewed life. The phoenix appears in Greco-Roman, Egyptian, Arabian, Chinese, Russian and Native American folklore and in all instances symbolizes strength, vision, inspiration and survival. The phoenix was an ideal mascot for the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games and later for BlazeSports America, a nonprofit organization that is the direct legacy of the Games. The phoenix has long been the symbol of Atlanta's rebirth after its devastation in the American Civil War. But most importantly, it is the personification of the will, perseverance and determination of youth and adults with physical disability to achieve full and productive lives. Blaze, with his bright colors, height and broad wing span, reflects the traits, identified in a focus group of athletes with disability, as those they believed best represented the drive to succeed of persons with physical disability who pursue sports as recreation and as a competitive endeavor. Today, Blaze is the most recognizable symbol of disability sport in America.

Sports[]

of Sweden celebrating her 50 m freestyle B1 gold with Janice Burton of Great Britain and Tracey Cross of Australia.

The games consisted of 508 events spread over twenty sports, including three demonstration sports.^[1]

• Archery
• Athletics
• Boccia
• Cycling
• Equestrian
• Football 7-a-side
• Goalball
• Judo
• Lawn bowls
• Powerlifting
• Sailing (demonstration sport, but medals awarded)
• Shooting
• Swimming
• Table tennis
• Volleyball
• Wheelchair basketball
• Wheelchair fencing
• Wheelchair rugby (demonstration sport, but medals awarded)
• Wheelchair tennis

A group of Australian supporters at the opening ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games

Venues[]

In total 11 venues were used at the 1996 Summer Olympics and five new venues were used at the Games in Atlanta.^[4]

Olympic Ring[]

• Centennial Olympic Stadium – opening/closing ceremonies, athletics
• Alexander Memorial Coliseum – standing volleyball
• Georgia Tech Aquatic Center – swimming

Metro Atlanta[]

• Henderson Arena – judo and wheelchair rugby
• Panther Stadium – lawn bowls and 7-side-football
• Woodruff P.E. Center – boccia
• GSU Sports Arena – goalball
• Marriott Marquis – powerlifting
• Sheffield Building – wheelchair fencing
• Forbes Arena and Omni Coliseum – wheelchair basketball
• Clayton State Arena – sitting volleyball

Another Venues[]

• Lake Lanier – yachting
• Georgia International Horse Park – equestrian
• Georgia World Congress Center – table tennis
• Stone Mountain Park – archery, wheelchair tennis and cycling
• Wolf Creek Shooting Complex – shooting

Medal count[]

A total of 1574 medals were awarded during the Atlanta games: 517 gold, 516 silver, and 541 bronze. The host country, the United States, topped the medal count with more gold medals, more bronze medals, and more medals overall than any other nation. Germany took the most silver medals, with 58.^[5]

In the table below, the ranking sorts by the number of gold medals earned by the top ten nations (in this context a nation is an entity represented by a National Paralympic Committee). The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals.

  Host country (United States)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)*	46	46	65	157
2	Australia (AUS)	42	37	27	106
3	Germany (GER)	40	58	51	149
4	Great Britain (GBR)	39	42	41	122
5	Spain (ESP)	39	31	36	106
6	France (FRA)	35	29	31	95
7	Canada (CAN)	24	21	24	69
8	Netherlands (NED)	17	11	17	45
9	China (CHN)	16	13	10	39
10	Japan (JPN)	14	10	13	37
Totals (10 nations)		312	298	315	925

Attendance and coverage[]

For the first time the Paralympics were being televised on American TV. This has now led to each following Paralympic games being televised.

Germany was the second largest contingency of spectators apart from America, which is highlighted in their 149 medal tally, only second to the USA.

Participating delegations[]

A total of 100 nations were represented at the 1996 Games, and the combined total of athletes was about 3,260.

Gallery[]

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  Wheelchair tennis

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  Welcome home parade

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See also[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1996 Summer Paralympics.

• 1996 Summer Olympics
• BlazeSports America, the legacy organization of the 1996 Paralympic Games

References[]

External links[]

• International Paralympic Committee
• Official site at the Wayback Machine (archived May 7, 2009)