ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to look at participation in the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games from a global perspective and to highlight a variety of issues that impact upon participation and success at the Games. As highlighted in Chapter 3, membership of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is divided into the same five regional areas as those used by the International Olympic Committee (Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania). There are currently 161 National Paralympic Committees in membership with IPC, compared with 204 National Olympic Committees. This chapter will look at participation in the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games on a regional basis in order to highlight certain disparities in participation that become clear from the figures. It will then take each region individually and give short ‘snapshots’ from a couple of different countries within those regions in order to highlight a range of different issues that might impact on participation either nationally, regionally or internationally. Finally, throughout the chapter attempts will be made to highlight and explain some of the possible reasons between different participation levels at the Summer and Winter Games.
