No sooner had the Athens Olympic torch been put out than another appeared in the same venue. Abeer Anwar reports on the Paralympic Games in which Egypt has a history of achievement It's not over yet. Fresh from the Summer Olympics, Athens is one again a global sports focus as it readies to host the 12th Paralympic Games for disabled athletes. The 11-day tournament starts tomorrow with 4,000 athletes representing 144 countries in 19 sports. The championship is a top-level sports event of equal value to that of the Olympic Games. The emphasis, however, is on the participants' athletic achievements rather than their disability. More than 2,500 journalists, photographers and broadcasters will also be in Athens. Egypt enters with a 65-member squad in volleyball, power lifting, athletics and table tennis. Egyptian athletes collected 28 medals in the 2000 Sydney Paralympics -- 28 more than their hapless compatriots in the Olympics proper of that year. Finishing 23rd out of 123 nations, they put the country smack on the international sports map, Egypt bagging six gold medals, 11 silver and 11 bronze. This year the team has some competition -- five medals, including a gold -- won by Egypt's able-bodied athletes in Athens. Egypt's showing in Athens should provide incentive for the Paralympians and indeed they are ready for the challenge. Four athletes hold world records: Fatma Omar, Metwalli Mathana and Ahmed Gomaa in power lifting and Mahmoud El-Attar in athletics. Gomaa and Mathana hold the Olympic records in their respective weights of 60kg and 67kg. Going by history, the Paralympic people will do just fine in Athens. Egypt notched five medals when the Paralympics were held the first time, in Seoul -- one gold, three silver and one bronze. The figure quadrupled in Barcelona in 1992. Egypt's 32-member delegation took seven gold, five silver and eight bronze for 20 medals. And in Atlanta 1996, out of 130 countries, Egypt finished a respectable 23rd with 30 medals, including seven gold. At least the athletes will not be giving money. For the first time in the Paralympics athletes will not pay in order to participate. At a meeting with the athletes before their departure, Youth Minister Anas El-Fiqi pledged to double the bonuses of medal winners. At present, a gold medal is worth LE40,000. By contrast, in Athens, Karam Gaber's gold medal in wrestling accorded him LE1 million. "The players promised to do their best and to do even better than their 23rd- place finish in Sydney," Nabil Salem, head of the Egyptian Disabled Federation, said. Salem predicted that 30 medals could be garnered. Hossameddin Mustafa, the delegation manager made it clear that, "It is the first time we participate in table tennis to give a chance to all sports and athletes to have an equal chance." The Paralympics have a unique historical story to tell. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games, gave a German the inspiration for the Paralympic Games. "The important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part," De Coubertin said. "The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle." Armed with those words was Sir Ludwig, an eminent German neurologist and neurosurgeon who, during World War II, was asked by the British government to set up a spinal injuries centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England. Sir Ludwig, nicknamed "De Coubertin of the paralysed," gave his reasons for introducing sporting activities as two-fold: To train the body and, second, to prevent the boredom of hospital life. The way he saw it, sports develop mental attitudes which are essential for social reintegration. Sir Ludwig's philosophy was to have a far-reaching impact on the lives of paralysed spinal cord patients through introducing sports into the treatment and rehabilitation programme of his patients. It led him to organise the first Stoke Mandeville Games in 1948. Just two teams took part -- the Stoke Mandeville Hospital and the Star and Garter Home for the Disabled -- and just one sport, archery, was played. Sixteen athletes in wheelchairs participated. Very few of those present shared Sir Ludwig's optimism. But just four years later the Games took on an international flavour when a small team of paralysed Dutch war veterans crossed the English Channel to join their British comrades in the Games in 1952. The Games thereafter became an annual event at Stoke Mandeville, with more and more countries participating in an increasing number of sports events. The year 1960 saw the realisation of Sir Ludwig's dream when the International Stoke Mandeville Games were held in Rome, the city of the Olympic Games. Four hundred paralysed athletes representing 23 countries joined in archery, basketball, darts, fencing, javelin, shotput, club throwing, snooker, swimming, table tennis and the pentathlon. Since 1960, with the exception of 1984, the Games for the disabled have been held every four years, following every Olympiad. Most Paralympics are held in the Olympics host city; Israel in 1972 and The Netherlands in 1980 have been exceptions. The International Coordinating Committee of World Sports Organisations for the Disabled (ICC) was founded in 1981. In 1983, following its first formal meeting with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, the ICC was admitted into the Olympic family. In 1985, the IOC and ICC agreed to substitute "Olympic Games for Disabled" for "Paralympic Games." Seoul 1988 witnessed the first official Paralympic Games.
