Atlanta 1996

With each Paralympic Games, the level of participation and performance has increased tremendously, and so it was with the 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta.

For the first time, athletes with a learning disability took part, along with athletes with spinal cord disabilities, cerebral palsy, amputations, les autres and visual impairments. There were 8,000 rooms for accommodation and 12,000 volunteers were recruited to help with the massive operations.

The Atlanta Games were attended by 3,195 athletes (2,415 male and 780 female) and 1,717 delegation staff from 103 countries. There were 20 sports spread across 508 events at the Games from 16 to 25 August. Of these, 17 were full medal sports and 3 were demonstration events—racquetball, sailing and wheelchair rugby.

For the first time, 56 mentally impaired athletes took part in special events in athletics and swimming.

The United States topped the medal table with 157 medals, of which 46 were gold. Next came Australia with 42 gold medals, and Germany with 40 gold medals.

Attendance was high throughout the Games. A total of 388,373 spectators were recorded across all the sporting events. For the opening and closing ceremonies, figures of 66,257 and 57,640 were noted respectively. A total of 2,088 media representatives were accredited. This total included 721 from the written press, 806 from the electronic media, and 114 photographers.