| India at the Paralympic Games | ||||||||||
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| Paralympic history | ||||||||||
| Summer Games | ||||||||||
| 1960 • 1964 • 1968 • 1972 • 1976 • 1980 • 1984 • 1988 • 1992 • 1996 • 2000 • 2004 • 2008 | ||||||||||
India made its Summer Paralympic début at the 1968 Games, competed again in 1972, and then was absent until the 1984 Games. The country has participated in every edition of the Summer Games since then. It has never participated in the Winter Paralympic Games.[1]
In 1972 at the Heidelberg Games, Petkar swam the 50 meter freestyle in a world record time of 37.331 seconds to give India her first ever Gold. India finished 25th out of the 42 participating nations. In 1984, Joginder Singh Bedi won silver at the Men's Shot Put and followed it up with a pair of bronze winning performances in the Discus and Javelin throws. Another Indian, Bhimrao Kesarhar, won the silver medal in the Javelin. India finished 37th out of the 54 participating nations.
After the success of the cooperative effort between the ICC and the IOC, which resulted in the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul, the ICC determined the need to expand and include representatives from all nations that had disability sports programs. The 1988 Summer Paralympics were the first Paralympics in 24 years that take place in the same city as the Olympic Games. This was the first time the term Paralympic Games came into official use.They also deemed it necessary to include athletes in the decisions of the Paralympic governing body. Consequently this body was reorganized as the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) in 1989.The IPC is the global governing body of the Paralympic Movement. It comprises 165 National Paralympic Committees (NPC) and four disability-specific international sports federations.
India continued to participate in each Paralympic Games thereafter, but failed to make an impact till the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens when Devendra Jhajharia[2], Javelin thrower, won gold(first paralympic gold for india) and Rajinder Singh won bronze for powerlifting in the 56-kg category. India finished 53rd out of the 136 nation field.[1]
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