A different type of Olympics

The city of Atlanta will be hosting the 1996 Paralympics in a few weeks. The what-a-lympics? Doesn't that start with an "o"? Not at all. If you are confused, it just may mean that you have never heard of the Paralympic Games. This event, whose name sounds so much like the larger international Olympic sporting competition, similarly brings the world's premiere athletes together to compete for gold, bronze and silver. The difference is that Paralympic athletes are disabled, often competing in wheelchairs or with the use of prosthetics.

The 1996 Paralympic Games will take place in mid-to-late August less than two weeks after the Closing Ceremonies of its more well-known counterpart. It will be the fourth time that the two international events have consecutively occurred in the same host city. The Paralympic competitions will take place in venues originally built for the Olympic Games such as the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center and the Stone Mountain Cycling Center. The Opening and Closing Ceremonies will be held in the Olympic stadium. Paralympic marathoners will steer their wheelchairs along the same blue line painted on Atlanta's streets as the Olympic runners followed weeks earlier.

Sir Ludwig Guttman, an English neurosurgeon at the celebrated Stoke-Mandeville Hospital in England organized the precursor to today's games; the first-ever International Wheelchair Games took place at the same time as the 1948 London Olympic Games. Not until two weeks after the 1960 Rome Olympics, however, did the first actual Paralympic Games occur when 400 athletes from 23 countries participated in this inaugural event.

Today the Paralympics include more than just athletes confined to wheelchairs. Amputees, blind persons and those afflicted with cerebral palsy all compete in this international competition within the disabled community. These athletes swim, ride horses and compete in volleyball competitions, which are split into standing and sitting divisions, despite their physical challenges.

A large number of people do not know as much about this event as about the Olympics-largely because the showy hoopla surrounding the Olympics overshadows the Paralympics. Participants, volunteers and organizers are busy preparing just the same. And many Atlantans are finding that volunteering for the Paralympics feels like a more worthwhile use of their time than working in the Olympics. Corporate sponsors are encouraging their employees to participate. Some, like BellSouth, are paying their employees while they volunteer full-time for the Games. At the beginning of July, the organizers' initial call for 12,000 volunteers had already been met with 7,000 commitments for at least five days. Although they still need more volunteers, organizers believe that the residents of Georgia will respond to their campaign that "No excuses" count when it comes to an event like the Paralympics. Across the state, Georgians have already responded favorably: One sees as many special-order license tags portraying the figure of Paralympic mascot, Blaze, as those bearing the Olympic logo.

Because the draw of the Paralympics is often more emotional and personal than the raw excitement of its cousin's dramatic and spectacular athletic show, these Games claim to be more family-oriented. They are an excellent opportunity for children to see people with disabilities in a positive way. And it is certainly less expensive for families and individuals to attend. The highest category of tickets to the Opening Ceremonies of the Paralympics to be held August 15 are selling for $100; that is hundreds less than comparable tickets to the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. And the average ticket price for Paralympic sporting events is $15, meaning that a family of four could go to see a basketball game for around the same amount of money that one person pay to attend a gymnastics or diving competition in the Olympics.

Three schools in the Camp Creek area north of Metro Atlanta serve as examples of how the Paralympics have impacted the lives of Atlanta's children. Annistown, Camp Creek and Pharr elementary schools in the Gwinnett County system set up a Future Problem Solving Program competition where they had the goal of raising awareness of able-bodied people toward the disabled, particularly toward the Paralympic athletes. These goals translated directly into a $5,600 donation to the 1996 Paralympics. Moreover, the children have become direct sponsors of the Paralympics: Their money was also used to purchase a wheelchair fencing equipment for the first U.S. Paralympics fencing team.

• Jeca Taudte