1988 Olympics and Paralympics were first held in the same city

Seoul hosted two Olympic games in 1988 as the Summer Paralympics was also held in Seoul right after the 1988 Summer Olympic Games was ended. It was the first time when both sporting events were taken place in the same city. As for the Winter Olympics, these two sporting events have been held in the same city since the 1992 Albertville Games.

According to the International Paralympic Committee, the present explanation for the name is that Paralympics derives from "para," the Greek preposition whose meaning is beside or alongside, and refers to a competition held in parallel with the Olympic Games.

However, the story was not the same when it started. In 1960, when the first Paralympic Games were held in Rome, paraplegic athletes attended the game. Thus, the name was originally coined as combining paraplegic and Olympic. With the inclusion of other disability groups, the explanation about the name has changed. The Paralympics has grown from a gathering of British World War II veterans in the U.K. in 1948.

South Korea first competed at the third Paralympics, the 1968 Sumer Paralympics in Tel Aviv, Israel. With 118 gold, 93 silver, and 91 bronze, South Korea is fourteenth on the all-time Paralympic Games medal table. The Paralympic medalists are awarded a lifelong monthly pension to enhance athletic performance same as Olympic medalists (one million won for gold, and 450,000 won and 300,000 won for silver and bronze, respectively). This is not the end of story. Most valuable players (MVPs) of the games were given Whang Youn-dai Achievement Award. The award is named after Dr. Whang Youn-dai, aged 78, the first Korean woman doctor with disabilities. Dr. Whang donated 2 million won (1,790 U.S. dollars) to the International Paralympic Committee in the 1988 Paralympic Games hoping to use the money for good things. The award is for someone who best exemplifies the spirit of challenge regardless of his or her records.

Apart from the Paralympics, there is an event called Special Olympics for intellectual and developmental disabilities. The 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games was held in Pyeongchang.

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