Five sports that have never been part of Paralympics

Published at :August 30, 2024 at 2:06 AM

Modified at :August 30, 2024 at 2:07 AM

(Courtesy : @basiitzargar/ X)

Some popular sports yet to be included in Paralympics.

The Paralympics 2024 has gotten underway in the Paris. The 2024 edition feature 22 sporting disciplines. India has sent a massive contingent of 84 athletes as they hope to better their record breaking performance at Tokyo.

Much like the Games, the paralympics has grown leaps and bounds since its inauguration, providing a wonderful window of opportunity for the differently abled sporting athletes who didn’t want their physical/mental health to affect their sporting careers.

Despite the tremendous success and growth, the Paralympics hasn’t witnessed some of the iconic and popular sports played in other competitions. Let’s take a closer look at some of these sports.

Squash

Much like the Olympic Games, squash is yet to feature at the Paralympics. A video of two wheelchair athletes playing the sport went viral on youtube in 2010, taking the digital world by storm. Unfortunately since then, there hasn’t been much consideration related to squash’s inclusion.

In 2017, the World Squash Federation chief executive Andrew Shelley said a ball bigger than the blue dot should be used and that the fast-paced nature of the sport and potential damage to glass walls would have to be discussed. While the growth of para badminton is encouraging signs for squash, the matter has still been described as “work in progress” by the federation.

Boxing

Wheelchair and blind boxing has been on the rise for the past few years. Currently about 18 countries are involved, including Greece, Brazil, America, and Canada. However according to the director of the IPC, “They need to send us a clear plan of how they are going to take the sport forward, and the sport must be widely and regularly practised in at least 32 countries on four continents before it can be considered for the Paralympic programme.”

Gymnastics

One of the most reputed sports in the Olympic Games has surprisingly never made an appearance at the Paralympics. As athletics, swimming and cycling adapted to embrace elite disabled athletes, gymnastics failed to create a Paralympic programme.

Stacie Ridley, once Britain’s most successful disable gymnast, said: “Which kid comes into gymnastics just to do cartwheels? Everyone wants to go to competitions, everyone wants to go to the Olympics and these disability gymnasts don’t have that opportunity so to me that’s not fully inclusive.” Great Britain has always pushed for the sport to be given recognition at the most prestigious event but has not received much backing.

Sport climbing

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Governing Board has approved a proposal from the LA28 Organizing Committee to include Para climbing into the 2028 Paralympic Sport Programme, thereby ending a long wait and scripting history. This marks the fifth debut sport in the last 12 years indicating the constant efforts of the authorities towards more engagement and granting opportunities.

The IFSC (International Federation of Sport Climbing) has been hosting Para climbing competitions since 2006, when the first international event saw athletes from National Federations compete. Today athletes from 27 different nations regularly compete in the sport which features an annual competition circuit including World Cup events, as well as biennial Paraclimbing World Championships which run alongside the IFSC Climbing World Championships.

Cricket

The most followed sport in Asia and particularly, in the world’s most populated nation- India, Cricket has not yet been able to set foot at the Paralympics. Much like the Games (wherein cricket is set to be included from LA28), the lack of competition and participation from across the globe is the major reason for its exclusion.

While teams like India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Australia, England, and Kenya have been in the scheme of things, for the sport to be recognized at the world’s greatest sporting event, more participation is the need of the hour currently.

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