Blind people at the Paralympics

People at the Paralympics compete in 10 different categories, depending on their disability. Eight of the categories are physical disabilities, one is visual impairment, and one is intellectual disabilities. Depending on the individual sports, people with only certain disabilities can compete. This post will only contain resources related to blind and visually impaired people following the theme of the blog, but I would recommend getting to know the other sports as well. This topic has been covered in so many ways, so instead of creating yet another basic overview, it is intended to be more of a resource list for starters.

I will list the sports where blind and visually impaired people can participate, and will provide videos which will give a quick overview of the rules or demonstrate what the sport looks like. It is more intended for those who are just getting familiar with the Paralympics or sports for blind people. I tried to find accessible videos, but the following list mainly targets sighted readers.

The official Paralympics YouTube channel has a great series, called sport explainers which give a quick overview of each sport, I used most of the videos from there. Though I have to say, if you are interested in a particular sport, you may want to watch an entire game to get a sense of it.

You will find that often blind people compete with a sighted guide, for example in cycling when they ride a tandem bike. The other thing that may look unusual is that in certain sports, blind people wear a blindfold. This is to ensure absolute equal chances, for example when a person has minimal vision, for all practical purposes they don’t qualify as partially sighted, but without the blindfold they would have an advantage. In order to ensure equal chances, all people, even those who are completely blind have to be blindfolded where it would impact the outcome of the game.

But let’s look at the list of the summer Paralympics sports where blind people participate:

Athletics

Cycling

Football

Goalball

Judo

Powerlifting

Rowing

Shooting

The following video is about Paralympic shooting in general:

This one talks about how blind people shoot:

Swimming

Where can I watch?

Just like other major competitions, there will be numerous places where you can watch Paralympic events, most likely different countries will focus more on their own teams. The Paralympic Games channel promises live broadcasting, and likely NBC Universal and Channel 4 Television will have the most coverage.

Where can I follow the results?

On the main 2024 Paralympic page on Wikipedia you can find information in a very organized, easy to access format. You can also easily find country and sport specific information from that page. And there is of course the official Paralympic site, which is accessible, but I found it more overwhelming to find information on, though most likely you will have more information much faster there.