International Paralympic Committee
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The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is an international non-profit organisation of elite sports for athletes with disabilities. Founded on September 22, 1989, the mission of the organization is To Enable Paralympic Athletes to Achieve Sporting Excellence and Inspire and Excite the World. The membership of the IPC is made up of representatives from 162 National Paralympic Committees, four Interational Organizations of Sport for the Disabled, five Regional Organizations, and six International Sports Federations. The IPC is headquartered in Bonn, Germany.
At the 2004 Summer Paralympics Closing Ceremonies on September 28, 2004, the IPC launched a new logo. When Athens handed over the flag to Beijing it displayed the new logo consisting of three Agitos in red, blue and green—the three colours that are most widely represented in national flags around the world. The Agito logo is strongly related to the IPC motto, Spirit in Motion. The old IPC logo was a composition of three Tae-Geuks, a traditional Korean decorative symbol, and symbolised the most significant components of the human being: Mind, Body, Spirit. The taegeuk based logo was introduced at the 1988 Summer Paralympics as five taegeuks arranged and coloured similarly to the Olympic rings.
The name derives from the Greek "para" ("beside" or "alongside"), and has nothing to do with paralysis or paraplegia.
The IPC organizes the Paralympic Games and other sport events. IPC and its national Paralympics Committees organize national Paralympic Games for high level competitions at a national level.
A fifteen-member Governing Board oversees the IPC between meetings of the General Assembly. The current President of the IPC is Sir Philip Craven. He is also a member of the International Olympic Committee.
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