Sports for people with disabilities and the Paralympic Movement is an evolving area. Since the start some 60 years ago, the Paralympic Movement and its governing body the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has experienced exponential growth in the number of sports as well as the number of athletes competing in the Paralympics, the second largest sporting event in the world. Research involving the Paralympic athlete is also an evolving area encompassing basic science, applied science, social science, nutrition, and performance enhancement in both hot and cold environments. At the same time, training of aerobic, anearobic, strength and endurance can be done similarly to other athletes. However, for certain groups of athletes there are neural and muscular limitations, which have to be considered when developing a training program. Examples are those athelets with a spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy or amputations. As with sports for able bodied individuals, knowledge from the field of athletics can be transferred to the area of rehabilitation. It is now known that sport specific training can enhance neural and muscular performance in people with stroke and other neurological disabilities. Thus, research into the area of the Paralympic athelete can enhance the design of rehabilitation program for many other people.
© Copyright 2012 The biomedical basis of elite performance. 19-21 March 2012, London, UK. Abstracts & Manuscripts. Published by The Physiological Society. All rights reserved.