5 Words to Know When Watching the Summer Paralympics, Straight From a Paralympian

@jessie_heims

5 words you should know when watching the Paralympics #greenscreen #paralympic #teamusa #tokyo #rush #fyp

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Channel 4 will broadcast over 300 hours of round the clock coverage of the Tokyo Paralympics, and for the first time ever, More 4 will be a dedicated team sports channel live from Tokyo. Plus, there are so many exciting sports to look forward to (goalball, sitting volleyball, wheelchair rugby, athletics . . . the list goes on!). American paralympic discus thrower Jessica Heims is gearing up for her second Games starting 24 Aug., and she shared a video on TikTok highlighting words to know ahead of time. Some of them may seem simple, but they're important distinctions to make.

Paralympics: The Paralympics officially began in 1960 and are "parallel" to the Olympic Games (the first Paralympic Winter Games were held in 1976). The word is derived from the Greek preposition "para" that means "beside" or "alongside". Elite athletes worldwide qualify to compete on the largest stage for disabled athletes.

Paralympian: Paralympians are these elite athletes who — you guessed it — have competed in at least one Paralympic Games.

Adaptive athlete: Heims notes that all Paralympians are adaptive athletes, meaning they compete with a disability, but not all adaptive athletes go to the Paralympics (much like how only a small percentage of able-bodied athletes go to the Olympics). Heims points out that not every person uses adaptive equipment like prosthetics and racing chairs. "It's very important to remember that not every disability is visible," she says.

Guide athlete: These are able-bodied athletes who act as aides for Paralympic athletes during field of play. Heims also refers to them as "handlers," and they may be called "sighted guides," too. In track and field specifically, vision-impaired athletes are tethered to their guides. "Many sports have a version of a guide or a handler, and they are not always tethered the same way that track and field athletes are," Heims explains. For instance, cycling guide athletes are "pilots," and they sit in front of a two-person tandem bike. An Olympic Channel documentary, The Invisible Bond, details stories of vision-impaired athletes and their guides. Guide athletes reportedly started receiving medals at the 2012 Paralympics.

Classifications: Athletes at the Paralympics are placed into different classifications, represented by letters and numbers, based on their disability and how their disability impacts the sport. Each sport has its own classifications for vision and hearing impairments, physical impairments to the body, and intellectual impairments (however, goalball, for example, is only played by athletes with vision impairments). Some athletes have challenged how the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) classifies an athlete's disability and which disabilities are considered eligible. The latest IPC Athlete Classification Code, published in 2015, is under a three-year review.

To learn more about Team GB, visit paralympics.co.uk. The Tokyo Paralympics begin 24 August on Channel 4.