Paralympic Games: Paralympic Games 1976 Toronto, Canada

V Paralympic Games

Host city

Toronto, Canada

Nations participating

Athletes participating

1,657
(1,404 men, 253 women)

Events

447 in 13 sports

Opening ceremony

August 3

Closing ceremony

August 11

Officially opened by

Kevin Cheuk

Stadium

Woodbine Racetrack
Centennial Park Stadium

Summer:

< Heidelberg 1972	Arnhem 1980 >

Winter:

< Örnsköldsvik 1976	Geilo 1980 >

The 1976 Summer Paralympics were the fifth Paralympic Games to be held. They were held in Toronto, in the province of Ontario, Canada from August 3 to 11, 1976. They were originally known as the Torontolympiad.^[1]

This marked the first time that Canada hosted the Summer Paralympics, which has now been followed by Canada's first Winter Paralympics, the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver.

The 1976 Summer Olympics were also hosted by Canada, in Montreal.

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[edit]Opening Ceremonies, Venues and Closing Ceremonies

The opening of the 1976 games were held at Woodbine Race Track in northEtobicoke. There was no athletes village, so the athletes were housed at York University (Keele campus), University of Toronto (Erindale?) and the CNIB (national headquarters in Toronto). Closing ceremonies and outdoor events (mainly track and field) took place at Centennial Park Stadium. Centennial Gymnasium and Centennial Park's Olympic Pool were the other venues (for indoor and swimming events respectively).

[edit]Sports

At the 1976 games, amputees and visually impaired athletes competed for the first time; previous editions of the Paralympic Games had included only wheelchairathletes. Within the sport of athletics, new wheelchair racing distances of 200 m, 400 m, 800 m and 1500 m were added. Shooting andgoalball, both previously demonstration events, were included as official medal sports.^[2]

[edit]Medal table

Main article: 1976 Summer Paralympics medal table

The top 10 NPCs by number of gold medals are listed below. The host nation, Canada, is highlighted.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	66	44	45	155
2	Netherlands	45	25	14	84
3	Israel	40	13	16	69
4	West Germany	37	34	26	97
5	Great Britain	29	29	36	94
6	Canada	25	26	26	77
7	Poland	24	17	12	53
8	France	23	21	14	58
9	Sweden	22	27	24	73
10	Austria	17	16	17	50

[edit]Participating delegations

Forty delegations took part in the Toronto Paralympics.^[3]

South Africa was competing at the Paralympics for the fourth time. Although banned from the Olympic Games due to its policy of apartheid, it was not banned from the Paralympics until 1980, and Canada, as host country, did not object to its participation. These were, however, to be its last Paralympics before the dismantling of apartheid; The Netherlands, as hosts of the 1980 Games, declared South Africa's further participation "undesirable".^[4]^[5]