MANILA, Philippines – The 2024 Paris Paralympics kicks off in France on Wednesday, August 28 (Thursday, August 29, Manila time), a little less than three weeks after the conclusion of the successful Summer Games.

Although the basic premise of the Paralympics is quite the same as the Summer Games, with it being the world’s top para sports event only happening every four years, there are still numerous differences that set it apart from its more popular counterpart.

And like the Summer Games, the Philippines is also competing in the 2024 Paralympics with a six-athlete delegation, with the hope of replicating the country’s magical, historic run through Paris.

How has the Philippines fared in the Paralympics?

Although the Paralympics has been around since 1960, the Philippines did not start competing until the 1988 edition in Seoul and did not win a medal until the turn of the new millennium.

To date, the country only has two medals, both bronze, in its possession, one from powerlifter Adeline Dumapong in the 2000 Sydney Games and another from table tennis player Josephine Medina in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro edition.

How are disabilities classified in the Paralympics?

Visible to the naked eye and otherwise, all manner of disabilities is accepted in the Paralympics, with a huge criteria list to maximize competition fairness and accurate representation.

These criteria are grouped under three big umbrellas:

• Physical impairment
• Visual impairment
• Intellectual disability

And under physical impairment, there are eight smaller sub-categories that branch out into even more sub-categories across the 22 Paralympic sports:

• Impaired muscle power – reduced muscle force generated
• Impaired passive range of movement – reduced joints movement
• Loss of limb or limb deficiency – partial or total loss of bones or joints
• Leg-length difference – bone shortening due to genes or injuries
• Short stature – shortened legs, arms, trunk
• Hypertonia – reduced muscle stretching
• Ataxia – lack of muscle movement coordination
• Athetosis – unbalanced, involuntary movements, difficulty in maintaining posture

What do the numbers mean in events?

Going further down the rabbit hole of disability classification, there are a myriad of other categories used to perfectly group athletes together in their respective sports, which are shown by a letter-number combination attached to the event name.

Here are the definitions for Philippine Paralympic Team’s event classifications, per the Olympics and Paralympics websites:

• Agustina Bantiloc (para archery open/W2+ST): “Athletes in this class may have a strong activity limitation in their trunk and legs and compete in a wheelchair or have an impairment in their leg and compete standing or resting on a stool due to balance control”
• Jerrold Mangliwan (wheelchair racing T52): “T51-54 (Limb deficiency, leg length difference, impaired muscle power or impaired range of movement)”
• Cendy Asusano (para javelin throw F54): “F51-57 (Limb deficiency, leg length difference, impaired muscle power or impaired range of movement)”
• Ernie Gawilan (para swimming SM7/S7): “S7-S8: Mild to moderate physical impairment (e.g., single limb amputations, moderate loss of function in one limb),” low to moderate movement in the arms, legs, trunk (e.g. absence of both legs just below the hips, absence of forearms). S = freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly, SB = breaststroke, SM = medley
• Angel Otom (para swimming S5): “S5-S6: Moderate physical impairment (e.g., short stature, moderate coordination problems, loss of function in lower limbs),” mainly mid-trunk movement (e.g. absence of both arms, absence of forearm and legs below the knee)
• Allain Ganapin (para taekwondo K44): “only one category is on the program: K44, which brings together athletes with a disability in one or both upper limbs”

What is the meaning behind the Paralympics symbol?

Vastly different from the iconic five rings symbol of the Olympics, the present-day Paralympics uses three crescents named “agito” (“I move” in Latin). Here are other historical and aesthetic trivia tidbits on the symbol:

• The colors red, blue, and green signify the most widely represented colors in flags around the world.
• The agitos “emphasize the role that the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has of bringing athletes from all corners of the world together and enabling them to compete.”
• From 1988 to 1994, the Paralympics used five pa, traditional Korean decorative components most famously used in the center of the South Korean flag.
• The symbol was changed to just three pa in 1994, after an International Olympic Committee request in 1991 noted the five-pa style being too similar to the five Olympic rings and thus may bring confusion.
• The three-pa symbol, a precursor of the present-day three agitos, meant “Body, Soul, and Spirit,” and was used until 2004.

– Rappler.com