Paralympic Games 1968 Tel Aviv, Israel

III Paralympic Games
Host city	Tel Aviv, Israel[1]
Nations participating	29
Athletes participating	750
Events	181 in 10 sports
Opening ceremony	November 4
Closing ceremony	November 13
Officially opened by	Yigal Allon
Stadium	Hebrew University Stadium
Summer:
< Tokyo 1964 Heidelberg 1972 >
Winter:
Örnsköldsvik 1976 >

The 1968 Summer Paralympics were the third Paralympic Games to be held. They were originally planned to be held alongside the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, but in 1966, the Mexican government decided against it due to difficulties. TheIsraeli government offered to host the games in Tel Aviv, a suggestion that was accepted. The opening ceremony took pace in the Hebrew University stadium at theGivat Ram campus in Jerusalem and the games actually took place in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, at the Israel Sports Center for the Disabled. The closing ceremony took place in the Tel Aviv Trade Center. Therefore, these games were the first in Paralympic history to not be held concurrently with the Olympic Games.

Contents  [hide] 1 Sports 2 Medal table 3 Participating delegations 4 References

[edit]Sports

Lawn bowls was included in the program for the first time. In wheelchair basketball, a women's team event was added, as was a 100 m wheelchair race for men inathletics.^[2]

• Archery
• Dart archery
• Athletics
• Lawn bowls
• Snooker
• Swimming
• Table tennis
• Weightlifting
• Wheelchair basketball
• Wheelchair fencing

[edit]Medal table

Certificate given to medal winners.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	33	27	39	99
2	Great Britain	29	20	20	69
3	Israel	18	21	23	62
4	Australia	15	16	7	38
5	France	13	10	9	32
6	West Germany	12	12	11	35
7	Italy	12	10	17	39
8	Netherlands	12	4	4	20
9	Argentina	10	10	10	30
10	South Africa	9	10	7	26
11	Rhodesia	6	7	7	20
12	Canada	6	6	7	19
13	Norway	5	3	1	9
14	Jamaica	3	1	1	5
15	Austria	2	7	10	19
16	Japan	2	2	8	12
17	Sweden	1	6	4	11
18	New Zealand	1	2	1	4
19	Ireland	0	4	5	9
20	Belgium	0	3	3	6
21	Spain	0	3	1	4
22	Switzerland	0	2	6	8
	Total	189	186	201	576

[edit]Participating delegations

Twenty-eight delegations took part in the Tel Aviv Paralympics.^[3]

Having made its Paralympic Games début four years earlier, South Africa continued to compete at the Paralympics, by sending a delegation to the Tel Aviv Games. It was, at the time, banned from the Olympic Games due to its policy of apartheid, but it was not banned from the Paralympics until 1980, and Israel, as host country, did not object to its participation.^[4] [5]

Argentina  Australia  Austria  Belgium  Canada  Denmark  Ethiopia  Finland  France  Great Britain

India  Ireland  Israel  Italy  Jamaica  Japan  Malta  Netherlands  New Zealand

Norway  Rhodesia  South Africa  South Korea  Spain  Sweden  Switzerland  United States  West Germany