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U.S. Paralympics Launches Paralympic Academy Beijing to Mark One Year Out from 2008 Paralympic Games
By Beth Bourgeois
// U.S. Paralympics
// September 6, 2007
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Today the one-year out countdown to the Paralympic Games begins. From September 6-17, 2008 in Beijing, China, the best athletes with a physical disability from the U.S. and around the world will come together for 11 days of elite sports competition. U.S. Paralympics, a division of the U.S. Olympic Committee, is marking the anniversary by launching the Paralympic Academy Beijing and hosting a sports clinic at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
The Paralympic Academy Beijing program will send 35 student athletes with physical disabilities and 15 Paralympic coaches to the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, China from September 4-12, 2008. There, student athletes will have the opportunity to experience the Paralympic Games firsthand. Participants in Paralympic Academy Beijing will meet U.S. Paralympic team members, attend Opening Ceremonies and athletic competitions and build camaraderie with other potential Paralympians.
"Less than five-percent of kids with physical disabilities participate in physical fitness programs," said Charlie Huebner, Chief of U.S. Paralympics. "The Paralympic Academy Beijing provides us an opportunity to recognize those kids with physical disabilities and programs that promote physical fitness and health."
To enter, applicants (ages 12-18) must fill out an application, which includes writing a 500-word essay on What Ability Means To Me, as well as include letters of recommendation. Applications can be found online at http://www.usparalympics.org/. Deadline to enter is April 1, 2008.
Also today, the USOC and its Paralympic Division will host a fencing clinic at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Olympian Rulon Gardner (Afton, Wyo./wrestling), two-time Paralympian John Register (Colorado Springs, Colo./swimming and track & field) and Paralympic hopefuls and Walter Reed alumni James Stuck (Edmond, Okla./sitting volleyball) and Melissa Stockwell (Chicago, Ill./swimming) will assist with the clinic and offer their support and words of thanks to members of the military who have been injured while serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
About the 2008 Paralympic Games:
Approximately 250 U.S. athletes will represent the U.S. Paralympic Team for competition in 19 different sports: archery, athletics, boccia, cycling, equestrian, fencing, goalball, judo, powerlifting, rowing, sailing, shooting, sitting volleyball, soccer, swimming, table tennis, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair tennis.
The U.S. Paralympic Team won a total of 88 medals at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece.
Helpful Web sites:
http://www.usparalympics.org/
http://www.usocpressbox.org/
http://en.beijing2008.cn/paralympic/
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