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Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate will provide a spectacular setting for the third International Paralympic Day (IPD), on 23 August 2007. IPD 2007 will showcase some of Paralympic Sport’s most fabulous athletes including a selection of world record holders.
Organized and hosted by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the global governing body of the Paralympic Movement, International Paralympic Day gives the audience a first hand, up-close and interactive experience of top-level Paralympic Sport and a chance to get in touch with some of the world’s best Paralympic athletes. It is a day of excitement, spectacle and inspiration for all!
The day offers a condensed version of the Paralympic Summer Games with competition in Wheelchair Basketball, Sitting Volleyball, Football 5-a-Side, Table Tennis, Long Jump and, for extra measure, Biathlon, a Paralympic Winter sport. Teams and individual athletes will come from all over the world to perform in Berlin. Spectators, especially children, will also have an opportunity to try out some of the sports themselves. It promises to be a great event for everybody, for people with and without a disability.
The International Paralympic Day visibly embodies the UN Convention for the Rights of People with Disabilities; this day is all about the promotion of the awareness, acceptance and appreciation of the rights and potential of persons with a disability through the courageous and inspiring examples demonstrated by Paralympic athletes and Paralympic Games. Come and find out what the Paralympic Movement is all about!
So far, the following athletes confirmed their participation for what is going to be the biggest IPD ever: for Table Tennis we have Paralympic gold medalist Holger Nikelis (Germany) and the German National Team, for Wheelchair Basketball, the German Men U22 National Team and the Chinese Women National Team will play against each other, in Sitting Volleyball the National Teams of Germany and Bosnia. Paralympic medalist Josef Giesen (Germany) will introduce visitors to the Biathlon shooting range. For the main event of the day, the Long Jump competition, world-class athletes Heinrich Popow (Germany), Casey Tibbs (USA), Urs Kolly (Switzerland), Xavier LeDraoullec (France), Thomas Ulbricht (Germany), Roberto La Barbera (Italy) and Matthias Schroeder (Germany) already confirmed.
Information from http://www.paralympic.org/release/Main_Sections_Menu/IPC_Events/IPD_2007/index.html
Find out more at the IPC website.