who were the paralympic games initially meant for
Paralympic Games There have been several milestones in the Paralympic movement. The first official Paralympic Games, no longer open solely to war veterans, was held in Rome in 1960.[10] 400 athletes from 23 countries competed at the 1960 Games. Since 1960, the Paralympic Games have taken place in the same year as the Olympic Games.[11][12] The Games were initially open only to athletes in wheelchairs; at the 1976 Summer Games, athletes with different disabilities were included for the first time at a Summer Paralympics.[9] With the inclusion of more disability classifications the 1976 Summer Games expanded to 1,600 athletes from 40 countries.[11] The 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul, South Korea, was another milestone for the Paralympic movement. It was in Seoul that the Paralympic Summer Games were held directly after the Olympic Summer Games, in the same host city, and using the same facilities. This set a precedent that was followed in 1992, 1996 and 2000. It was eventually formalized in an agreement between the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2001,[11][13] and was recently extended through 2020.[14] The 1992 Winter Paralympics were the first Winter Games to use the same facilities as the Winter Olympics.