1.
Athens
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Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. In modern times, Athens is a cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime. In 2015, Athens was ranked the worlds 29th richest city by purchasing power, Athens is recognised as a global city because of its location and its importance in shipping, finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, culture, education and tourism. It is one of the biggest economic centres in southeastern Europe, with a financial sector. The municipality of Athens had a population of 664,046 within its limits. The urban area of Athens extends beyond its administrative city limits. According to Eurostat in 2011, the Functional urban areas of Athens was the 9th most populous FUA in the European Union, Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland. The city also retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a number of Ottoman monuments. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery, Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics. In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι a plural, in earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη. It was possibly rendered in the later on, like those of Θῆβαι and Μυκῆναι. During the medieval period the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα, an etiological myth explaining how Athens has acquired its name was well known among ancient Athenians and even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon. The goddess of wisdom, Athena, and the god of the seas, Poseidon had many disagreements, in an attempt to compel the people, Poseidon created a salt water spring by striking the ground with his trident, symbolizing naval power. However, when Athena created the tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. Different etymologies, now rejected, were proposed during the 19th century. Christian Lobeck proposed as the root of the name the word ἄθος or ἄνθος meaning flower, ludwig von Döderlein proposed the stem of the verb θάω, stem θη- to denote Athens as having fertile soil. In classical literature, the city was referred to as the City of the Violet Crown, first documented in Pindars ἰοστέφανοι Ἀθᾶναι. In medieval texts, variant names include Setines, Satine, and Astines, today the caption η πρωτεύουσα, the capital, has become somewhat common
2.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
3.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
4.
President of Greece
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The President of the Hellenic Republic, colloquially referred to in English as the President of Greece, is the head of state of Greece. The President is elected by the Hellenic Parliament, and his role is mostly ceremonial since the 1986 constitutional reform, the incumbent, since 2015, is Prokopis Pavlopoulos, serving his first term in office. The president is the nominal commander-in-chief of the Greek Armed Forces and occupies the first place in the order of precedence. The presidents role was formally brought into line with actual practice by the 1986 constitutional amendment, according to Article 32 the Greek Constitution, the President is elected for a five-year term by the Hellenic Parliament in a special session at least a month before the incumbents term expires. Voting takes place in two phases, each maximally of three ballots, separated by no more than five days, the first and second ballots require a supermajority of 200 out of the 300-strong body, dropping to 180 on the third. In the event of a non-election even after the ballot, the parliament is to be dissolved. After the new parliament convenes, the phase begins, with the required majority at 180 votes in the fourth ballot. The sixth and last ballot is then contested between the two candidates with the most votes and decided by a relative majority, the official residence of the President of Greece is the Presidential Mansion, formerly the New Royal Palace, in central Athens. A staged referendum on 29 July 1973 confirmed the regime change and this attempt at controlled democratization was ended by Brigadier Dimitrios Ioannidis overthrow of Papadopoulos in November 1973. The republic and its institutions were maintained, but was nothing more than a façade for the military regime. Lt. General Phaedon Gizikis was appointed President of the Republic, but power was in the hands of Ioannidis, in the interim, Gizikis, remained in office as President. After the plebiscite, he was succeeded by the first elected President, a new constitution, promulgated on 11 June 1975, declared Greece a presidential parliamentary democracy. This constitution, revised in 1985,2001, and 2008, is still in force today, there are two living former Greek Presidents, List of heads of state of Greece List of Presidents of Greece by longevity
5.
Konstantinos Stephanopoulos
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Konstantinos Kostis Stephanopoulos was a Greek conservative politician who served two consecutive terms as the President of Greece, from 1995 to 2005. Stephanopoulos was born in Patras on 15 August 1926 to the lawyer and subsequent Peoples Party Member of Parliament Dimitrios Stephanopoulos, after attending the Saint Andrew school of Patras, he studied law at Athens University. He practiced law from 1954 until 1974 as a member of the Patras Bar Association and he first stood for election in 1958, with the National Radical Union and was elected for the first time as MP for Achaea Prefecture in 1964. He was re-elected for the constituency for New Democracy in 1974,1977,1981 and 1985. He served as ND parliamentary secretary and parliamentary spokesman from 1981 to 1985, in 1974, Stephanopoulos was appointed Deputy Minister of Commerce in the National Unity government of Constantine Karamanlis. In August 1985 he resigned from ND and on 6 September formed Democratic Renewal and he was elected Member of Parliament for Athens in the 1989 elections while continuing as the leader of DIANA, until it disbanded in June 1994. He was the person to hold the post since the restoration of democratic rule in 1974. He was re-elected on 8 February 2000 on the first ballot and he remained in office until 2 March 2005, when he was succeeded by Karolos Papoulias. As a President he was known for his profile, unifying approach to current and international affairs. During his presidency, he was consistently the most popular figure in Greece. As head of state of the host country, he declared the 2004 Athens Olympics open. Stephanopoulos died at 23,18 in Henry Dunant Hospital, Athens and he had been hospitalised three days earlier, suffering from fever and severe respiratory difficulty, which later emerged as pneumonia. Stephanopoulos was married for 29 years to Tzeni Stounopoulou, who died in 1988, Stephanopoulos received many honorary awards and the highest decorations of foreign countries. He was a citizen of many Greek towns. Poland, Order of the White Eagle Croatia, Grand Order of King Tomislav Slovenia, media related to Konstantinos Stefanopoulos at Wikimedia Commons
6.
Olympic Stadium (Athens)
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The Olympic Stadium of Athens Spyros Louis is part of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex. It is named after the first modern Olympic marathon race winner in 1896, the stadium hosts one of the biggest sport clubs in Greece, AEK Athens. Located in the area of Marousi in Athens, the stadium was designed in 1979. It was completed in time to host the 1982 European Championships in Athletics and it was inaugurated by the President of Greece, at the time Konstantinos Karamanlis, on 8 September 1982. It was extensively renovated in time for the 2004 Summer Olympics, including a roof designed by Santiago Calatrava, the roof was added atop the sidelines and completed just in time for the opening of the Games. The two giant arcs have a span of 304m and a maximum height of 72m. Also, it has a weight of 19,000 tons with 5,000 polycarbonate panels. The west arc was assembled 72m from its position and the east 65m - both later slid into place. The roof is designed to withstand winds up to 120 km/h, the stadium was then officially re-opened on 30 July 2004. It hosted the events and the football final at the 2004 Summer Olympics. It also hosted the ceremony on 13 August 2004. The turf system consists of grass in modular containers which incorporate irrigation. The Olympic Stadium has been used as home ground in various times by the three big clubs of Athens, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens. The stadium played host to Amnesty Internationals Human Rights Now, benefit Concert on 3 October 1988. The show was headlined by Sting and Peter Gabriel and also featured Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Tracy Chapman, Youssou NDour, and George Dalaras. Madonna performed before a crowd of 75,637 at the stadium on 27 September 2008. U2 performed in front of a crowd of 82,662 during their 360° Tour on 3 September 2010, pyx Lax performed also in front of a crowd of about 80,000, during their reunion tour on 13 July 2011. It was the highest attended Greek-band-concert, Bon Jovi performed during their Bon Jovi Live Tour on 20 July 2011
7.
2000 Summer Paralympics
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The 2000 Paralympic Games were held in Sydney, Australia, from 18 to 29 October. In September 1993, Sydney won the rights to host the 2000 Paralympic Games, to secure this right it was expected that the New South Wales Government would underwrite the budget for the games. The Sydney games were the eleventh Summer Paralympic Games, where an estimated 3800 athletes took part in the programme and they commenced with the opening ceremony on 18 October 2000. It was followed by the 11 days of international competition and was the second largest sporting event ever held in Australia. They were also the first Paralympic Games outside the Northern Hemisphere, the games was estimated to cost $157 million, with the NSW Government and Commonwealth Government contributing $25 million each. The Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games contributed $18 million, the Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee entered into a Host City contract with the International Paralympic Committee, which outlines the SPOC’s obligations in hosting the Paralympic Games. To cover the costs, other revenue was raised via sponsorship, though there is no budgeted profit, if any profit is made though the games, repayment to the Federal and State Governments is the first priority. In October 1998, governing bodies of the Paralympics including the SOCOG, an estimated total of forty-one thousand Australians answered this call, non-including those sourced from specialist community groups. The major focus between 1999-2000 was completion of the first stage of the Millennium Parklands and this is composed of 450 hectares of landscape, with up to 40 kilometers of pedestrian and cycle trails. This major first stage included focus on the surrounding Olympic facilities, providing a landscape for recreational activities, conservation. During this time work on the Water Reclamation and Management Scheme will continue to progress, the WRAMS will be in use during the games with the first stage to be implemented. This system will continue after the games, and will be developed after the games has been completed. The WRAMS system is one of the many water saving management strategies to be used during the games period. Stormwater from the Stadium Australia roof is to be collected and used to irrigate the central stadium, the Paralympic Games are governed by the International Paralympic Committee. The Games were organised by the Sydney Paralyampic Organising Committee led by President Dr John Grant, the SOCOG was established at the same time as the Sydney Paralympic organising Committee on 12 November 1993 by the Office of Olympic Co-ordination. In January 1995, SPOC became a company controlled by the Government. A board of directors including the Premier, Minister for the Olympics, the Treasurer and the Minister for Sport, the Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee also regulated the use of Paralympic Games indicia and images. On 29 November, the Sydney Games Administration Act 2000 was passed, the legislation caused the Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee to dissolve from 1 January 2001, its assets and liabilities were transferred to the Olympic Coordination Authority
8.
2008 Summer Paralympics
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The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games, the thirteenth Paralympics, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to 17,2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao,3,951 athletes from 146 countries took part. This was the largest ever number of nations at the Paralympics, China fielded more athletes than any other country. The slogan for the 2008 Paralympics was the same as the 2008 Summer Olympics, One World, China dominated the medal count finishing with 89 gold medals and 211 total medals, more than double the next-ranked NPC in both cases. 339 Paralympic records and 279 world records were broken, international Paralympic Committee President Philip Craven declared the Games the greatest Paralympic Games ever. Nineteen competition venues—seventeen in Beijing, one in Hong Kong, the red, blue, and green in the emblem represent sun, sky, and earth. The slogan was the same as the 2008 Summer Olympics, One World, the mascot was a cartoon cow named Fu Niu Lele, roughly meaning Lucky Ox Happy. The theme song was Flying with the Dream Chinese, 和梦一起飞 and it was performed by Chinese-Tibetan singer Han Hong and Hong Kong singer and actor Andy Lau. The torch relay of the 2008 Summer Paralympics started from Tian Tan on August 28, the flame then gathered before The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and followed two routes. Both routes returned to Beijing on September 5, and the torch was flamed at the National Stadium during the Opening Ceremony on September 6, the opening ceremony took place on September 6,2008. The pre-ceremony performance was a succession of musical performances, ranging from military music to folk music. Following a countdown, a fireworks display signalled the beginning of the ceremony proper, the national flag of China was then raised, in accordance with usual protocol, and the national anthem of China performed. Performers wearing suits in bright colours paraded round the stadium, as a ceremony preceding the athletes entry. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, the ceremony included a parade of nations, countries with the same number of strokes in the first character are sorted by those of the next character. This made Guinea the first country to enter as it takes two strokes to write the first character in the countrys name, the ceremony concludes with Hou Bin, the high jump gold medalist with one leg lighting the flame cauldron. The 2008 Summer Paralympics closing ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium and it began at 8,00 pm China Standard Time on September 17,2008. Twenty sports were on the program, Rowing made its first appearance in the Paralympics at these games, the following National Paralympic Committees sent delegations to compete. Burundi, Gabon, Georgia, Haiti and Montenegro were participating in the Paralympics for the first time, botswana was due to take part, but its single athlete, defending Paralympic champion sprinter Tshotlego Morama, withdrew prior to the Games due to injury
9.
2002 Winter Paralympics
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The 2002 Winter Paralympics, the eighth Winter Paralympics, were held in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, from March 7 to 16,2002. A total of 416 athletes from 36 nations participated and they were the first Winter Paralympics in the American continent. These were the first Paralympic Winter Games for Andorra, Chile, the People’s Republic of China, Croatia, Greece, and Hungary. Ragnhild Myklebust of Norway won five medals in skiing and biathlon. The games consisted of four disciplines in three sports, alpine skiing Sledge hockey Nordic skiing Biathlon Cross-country skiing In total 5 venues were used at the 2002 Winter Olympics around 4 cities and towns. The logo of the Salt Lake 2002 Paralympic Winter Games is made up of three distinct marks, the sphere on the top represents the head of the Paralympic athlete and also symbolizes the global unity of the Paralympic Movement. Two broad fluid lines represent the athlete in motion, the three taegeuks beneath the athlete reproduce the green, red and blue marks on the Paralympic Flag. The mascot for the Paralympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City 2002 was Otto the otter, indigenous peoples of the Americas consider otters to be fast swimmers, though in some stories a bit of a show-off. After being nearly wiped out by pollution and overtrapping the river otter has been reintroduced to Utah and can be seen along the banks of the Green River and near Flaming Gorge. The otter was chosen as the mascot of the Salt Lake 2002 Paralympic Winter Games because he embodies vitality and agility. 2002 Winter Olympics 2007 Winter Deaflympics Official site International Paralympic Committee Paralympics at SVTs open archive
10.
2006 Winter Paralympics
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The 2006 Winter Paralympic Games, the ninth Winter Paralympics, took place in Turin, Italy from 10 to 19 March 2006. These were the first Winter Paralympic Games to be held in Italy and they were also the first Paralympics to use the new Paralympics logo. The top 10 NPCs by number of gold medals are listed below, the Games featured 58 medal events in five disciplines of four sports. As with other Paralympic Games, medals are awarded for each classification within each event, the sport of wheelchair curling made its Paralympic debut at these games. Alpine skiing events were held at Sestriere, cross-country skiing and biathlon events were held at Cesana San Sicario. All skiing athletes were accommodated in the Alpine Paralympic Village in Sestriere, ice sledge hockey was held in Turin, and wheelchair curling was held in Pinerolo. These athletes were accommodated in the City Paralympic Village in Turin, thirty-nine National Paralympic Committees entered athletes at the 2006 Winter Paralympics. This was an increase of three from the 36 represented at the 2002 Winter Paralympics, the number in parentheses indicates the number of participants from each NPC. A total of 486 athletes participated in the Games,385 male and 101 female and this is an increase from the 430 athletes participated in 2002. Despite overall increase of delegates and athletes, the nations who participated in the 2002 Winter Paralympics did not send athletes to Turin. Estonia Netherlands Mexico is the country who had sent an athlete to these Games. These are the second Paralympic Games to be held in Italy and these are the first Paralympic Games to feature a live webcast of events, hosted by ParalympicSport. TV. The Games mascot is Aster, a star-shaped snowflake similar in design to the Olympic mascots Neve and Gliz. TV International Paralympic Committee
11.
Bids for the 2004 Summer Olympics
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Five cities made the shortlist with their bids to host the 2004 Summer Olympics, which were awarded to Athens, on September 5,1997. The other shortlisted cities were Rome, Cape Town, Stockholm, in the first round of voting, Buenos Aires and Cape Town tied with the lowest number of votes. Round two was therefore a tie-breaker round between the two cities, with Buenos Aires being eliminated, Stockholm was the next city to be eliminated followed by Cape Town. The final round saw Athens receive enough votes to defeat Rome, Athens was the leader in all rounds of voting, except in Round 2, which was a tie-breaker due to a first round tie between Cape Town and Buenos Aires. Cape Town won that round over Buenos Aires, before losing out in the 4th round, rio de Janeiro, Brazil San Juan, Puerto Rico Istanbul, Turkey Lille, France Saint Petersburg, Russia Seville, Spain
12.
2004 Summer Paralympics medal table
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Athletes from 75 countries has won at least one medal, leaving 61 countries without a medal. The ranking in this table is based on information provided by the International Paralympic Committee and is consistent with IPC convention in its published medal tables, by default, the table is ordered by the number of gold medals the athletes from a nation have won. The number of medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals. If nations are tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically by IPC country code. Host country To sort this table by nation, total medal count, or any other column, medal Standings - Athens 2004 Paralympic Games. 2004 Summer Olympics medal table International Paralympic Committee
13.
2004 Summer Paralympics
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3,806 athletes from 136 National Paralympic Committees competed. 519 medal events were held in 19 sports, four new events were introduced to the Paralympics in Athens, 5-a-side football for the blind, quads wheelchair tennis, and a womens competition in sitting volleyball and in the judo. A total of 1567 medals were awarded during the Athens games,519 gold,516 silver, china topped the medal count with more gold medals, more silver medals, and more medals overall than any other nation. In the table below, the ranking sorts by the number of medals earned by a nation. Chantal Petitclerc of Canada won five golds and set three records in wheelchair racing, while Swedish shooter Jonas Jacobsson took four gold medals. Frances Béatrice Hess won her nineteenth and twentieth Paralympic gold medals in swimming, swimmer Trischa Zorn of the United States won just one medal, a bronze, but it was her 55th ever Paralympic medal. She retained her position as the most successful Paralympian of all times, the opening ceremony for the 2004 Summer Paralympics took place on September 17,2004. The show started with children passing on knowledge and raising their lights to the sky and this was a reference to Hippocrates, who transferred knowledge to the children. A26 meters tall olive tree symbolising life stood in the middle of the arena, the opening ceremony also featured a performance with human drama, with light and with music, in an allegory about obstacles and limits. The Parade of Delegations was accompanied by the music of French composers Yves Stepping, the music told the legend of Hephaestos, god of fire and son of Zeus and Hera. An athlete from Turkmenistan propelled himself around the stadium by doing somersaults, Greece, the home team, received a strong cheer. After that, fireworks erupted at the stadium, there were 150 local support staff involved and 400 volunteers. The children were from ages 8 to 17, coming from Australia, France, Spain, Greece, the Games were officially declared opened by Greek president Costis Stephanopoulos and Philip Craven, the president of the International Paralympic Committee. They were accompanied by the head of the organizing committee Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, who told the athletes, many of you will leave Athens with medals, but all of you will leave as champions. Phil Craven quoted Democritus in his speech, Two thousand years ago and this holds true for all athletes, but especially for Paralympians. Recognising and cultivating your unique abilities and mastering challenges – you set standards and give expression for people, young and old. The Paralympic flame was lit by Greek athlete Georgios Toptsis, the closing ceremony for the 2004 Summer Paralympics took place on September 28,2004. The artistic and entertainment part of the ceremony will not take place, flags were flown at half mast and a minutes silence was observed
14.
2004 Summer Olympics
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10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team officials from 201 countries. There were 301 medal events in 28 different sports, Athens 2004 marked the first time since the 1996 Summer Olympics that all countries with a National Olympic Committee were in attendance. 2004 marked the return of the games to the city where they began, a new medal obverse was introduced at these Games, replacing the design by Giuseppe Cassioli that had been used since the 1928 Games. This rectified the long lasting mistake of using a depiction of the Roman Colosseum rather than a Greek venue, the new design features the Panathenaic Stadium. The cost of the 2004 Athens Summer Games has been cited as a contributor to the Greek government-debt crisis, some of the venues lie vacant and rotting, while others are in use, the Independent newspaper reports as many as 21 out of 22 are unused. The final medal tally was led by the United States, followed by China, several World and Olympics records were broken during the games. Several concerns were raised over the preparations of the Games and these included excessive budget overruns, infrastructural compromise, the games were deemed generally successful with the rising standard of competition amongst nations across the world. Athens was chosen as the host city during the 106th IOC Session held in Lausanne on 5 September 1997, Athens had lost its bid to organize the 1996 Summer Olympics to Atlanta nearly seven years before on 18 September 1990, during the 96th IOC Session in Tokyo. 1996 coincided with the 100th Anniversary of the first modern Olympics, under the direction of Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, Athens pursued another bid, this time for the right to host the Summer Olympics in 2004. After leading all voting rounds, Athens easily defeated Rome in the 5th, cape Town, Stockholm, and Buenos Aires, the three other cities that made the IOC shortlist, were eliminated in prior rounds of voting. Six other cities submitted applications, but their bids were dropped by the IOC in 1996 and these cities were Istanbul, Lille, Rio de Janeiro, San Juan, Seville, Saint Petersburg and Cali. The 2004 Summer Olympic Games cost the Government of Greece €8.954 billion to stage, the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee, responsible for the preparation and organisation of the games, concluded its operations as a company in 2005 with a surplus of €130.6 million. ATHOC contributed €123.6 million of the surplus to the Greek State to cover other related expenditures of the Greek State in organizing of the games, as a result, ATHOC reported in its official published accounts a net profit of €7 million. The State’s contribution to the total ATHOC budget was 8% of its expenditure against an originally anticipated 14%, the overall revenue of ATHOC, including income from tickets, sponsors, broadcasting rights, merchandise sales etc. totalled €2,098.4 million. The largest percentage of income came from broadcasting rights. The overall expenditure of ATHOC was €1,967.8 million. e, the large projects required for the upgrade of the country’s infrastructure, including sports infrastructure, roads, airports, hospitals, power grid etc. This cost, however, is not directly attributable to the organisation of the Games. Such infrastructure projects are considered by all standards as fixed asset investments that stay with the hosting country for decades after the Games
15.
2004 Summer Olympics medal table
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The 2004 Summer Olympics medal table is a list of National Olympic Committees ranked by the number of medals won during the 2004 Summer Olympics, held in Athens, Greece, from 13 to 29 August 2004. A total of 10,625 athletes from 201 countries participated in these games, kiribati and Timor Leste competed for the first time in these Olympic Games. Athletes from 74 countries won at least one medal, leaving 127 countries without a medal, the United States won the most gold medals, the most silver medals and the most medals overall. China finished second on the International Olympic Committee medal table, the countrys best performance until the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Russia finished third, and also won the most bronze medals. Host nation Greece finished fifteenth, with six gold, six silver, australia became the first nation to improve their gold medal total at the Games immediately after hosting a Summer Olympics. The United Arab Emirates, Paraguay and Eritrea won their first ever Olympic medals, israel, Chile, Dominican Republic, Georgia, Chinese Taipei and United Arab Emirates won their first Olympic gold medals. The medal table is based on information provided by the International Olympic Committee and is consistent with IOC convention in its published medal tables, by default, the table is ordered by the number of gold medals the athletes from a nation have won. The number of medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals. If nations are tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically. In boxing and judo, two medals were awarded in each weight class, so the total number of bronze medals is greater than the total number of gold. Since the conclusion of the 2004 Games, doping scandals have resulted in the revocations of medals from numerous athletes, in the team jumping event, German equestrian Ludger Beerbaum was disqualified, after his horse Goldfever tested positive for the illegal substance betamethasone. Christian Ahlmann, Marco Kutscher, and Otto Becker of the German team retained a medal, US cyclist Tyler Hamilton in mens road time trial confessed that he doped during the Summer Olympics. He had his gold medal reallocated to Viatcheslav Ekimov from Russia, US cyclist Bobby Julich was awarded the silver medal, and Australian Michael Rogers receiving bronze. The US womens 4 x 400 metres relay team was recommended by the International Association of Athletics Federations to be stripped of their gold medal, the gold medal should theoretically go to Russia, silver to Jamaica and bronze to Great Britain. However, up to today, no action has been taken by IOC. Hence, the US relay team is listed as the winner for this event. Four Athletes were stripped of their medals on 5 December 2012 after drug re-testings of their samples were found positive, no decision has yet been taken on reallocating the medals. No decision has yet taken on reallocating the medals
16.
International Paralympic Committee
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The International Paralympic Committee is an international non-profit organisation and the global governing body for the Paralympic Movement. The IPC organizes the Paralympic Games and functions as the federation for nine sports. Founded on 22 September 1989 in Düsseldorf, Germany, its mission is To enable Paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence and inspire, furthermore, the IPC wants to promote the Paralympic values and to create sport opportunities for all persons with a disability, from beginner to elite level. The IPCs headquarters is located in Bonn, Germany, in the upcoming years, other organizations joined and the need for a democratically guided organization emerged, demanded by the nations participating in the Paralympic Movement. They desired a democratic structure, to national and regional representation. The 1994 Winter Paralympics, Norway, were the first to be organized by the IPC, the word Paralympic derives from the Greek preposition para. and Olympics. The first connotation connected to the para was paralysis or paraplegia. But since the Paralympics cover different disability groups and the association to the Olympic Movement. A fifteen-member Governing Board oversees the IPC between meetings of the General Assembly, dr. Robert D. Steadward became the first President in 1989. Since 2001, Sir Philip Craven is President of the IPC, the number of athletes and nations participating in the Paralympic Games and thus being part of the Paralympic Movement is constantly increasing, along with the audience. Sport for persons with a disability is growing on a national and international level, the International Paralympic Committee has had two presidents to date. Its founding president, who presided it from 1989 to 2001, was the Canadian Robert Steadward and he was succeeded in 2001 by Philip Craven, a British former Paralympic athlete, who remains president as of 2016. The IPC Governing Board consists of 14 members elected at the General Assembly, including the President, two members of the board without voting rights are the co-opted member Bernard Bourigeaud, and the CEO Xavier Gonzalez. The IPC has a board of distinguished individuals who support the IPCs goals and use their profile to raise funds. Chronology of milestones in the development of the International Paralympic Committee, the IPC publishes The Paralympian three times a year. The London 2012 Paralympics and other events related to the Paralympic Movement can be watched on the Internet TV channel for Paralympic Sports created by the IPC. The agreement came into effect at the 2008 Paralympic Summer Games in Beijing, the agreement was adjusted in 2003. An extension was signed in June 2006, a further extension was signed in 2012, valid until 2020
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Summer Paralympic Games
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The Summer Paralympic Games or the Games of the Paralympiad, are an international multi-sport event, where athletes with physical disabilities compete. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, the Paralympic Games are held every four years, organized by the International Paralympic Committee. Medals are awarded in each event, with medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third. The United States and the United Kingdom have each hosted two Summer Paralympic Games, more than any other nation. Other countries that have hosted the summer Paralympics are Australia, Canada, China, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, in the 2016 Summer Paralympics, Brazil will host the first Summer Games in South America in Rio de Janeiro. Tokyo will be the first city to host the Summer Paralympics more than once,1964 and 2020. Seven of those countries have won at least one medal at every Summer Paralympic Games, Australia, Austria, France, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands. The United States have been the nation for eight of the Paralympic Summer Games,1964,1968,1976,1980,1984,1988,1992 and 1996. China have been the nation for the four most recent Games,2004,2008,2012 and 2016. Italy, West Germany and Australia have been the nation one time each. Qualification rules for each of the Paralympic sports are set by the International Federation that governs that sports international competition, the first official Paralympic Games, was held in Rome in 1960. 400 athletes from 23 countries competed at the 1960 Games though only athletes in wheelchairs competed, at the 1976 Summer Games athletes with different disabilities were included for the first time at a summer Paralympics. With the inclusion of more disability classifications, the 1976 Summer Games expanded to 1,600 athletes from 40 countries, the 1988 Summer Paralympics were the first to be hosted in the same venues as the Olympics of that year. Since then, all Paralympic Games are now held in the city that hosted the Olympics. Each Paralympic sport then has its own classifications, dependent upon the physical demands of competition. Events are given a code, made of numbers and letters, describing the type of event, within the ten disability categories the athletes still need to be divided according to their level of impairment. The classification systems differ from sport to sport, and is intended to even the playing field so as to allow as many athletes to participate as possible, classifications vary in accordance with the different skills required to perform the sport. Archery, Archery is open to athletes with a physical disability, classifications are broken up into three divisions, W1, spinal cord injured and Cerebral Palsy athletes with impairment in all four limbs
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Multi-sport event
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A multi-sport event is an organized sports event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports between organized teams of athletes from nation states. The first major, modern, multi-sport event of significance is the modern Olympic Games. Many regional multi-sport events have since founded and modeled after the Olympics. Most have the basic structure. Games are held over the course of days in and around a host city. Countries send national teams to each competition, consisting of individual athletes, athletes or teams are awarded gold, silver or bronze medals for first, second and third place respectively. The games are held every four years, though some are annual competitions. Instead, the Greek sports of racing and wrestling, as well as the Etruscan sport of gladiatorial combat. In the late 19th and early 20th century, athletes at events were almost exclusively male. As international womens sport began to develop, events such as the Womens World Games, though short-lived, events such as these led to greater inclusion of women at multi-sport events over the course of the 20th century. Since the establishment of the Olympics, most serial multi-sport events have been organized for specific audiences, after some celebrations, the Olympics became very popular nowadays. The number of sports, initially only a few, is still growing, the Paralympic Games is the largest multi-sport event involving athletes with physical disabilities, and is organised by the International Paralympic Committee. Arranged for the first time in 1960 in Rome, Italy, the number of sports, initially only a few, is still growing. The first Special Olympics International Summer Games were held in Chicago, the most recent Special Olympics World Summer Games in Los Angeles, United States, involved 25 sports and approximately 6,500 athletes from 177 countries. At the beginning of the 20th century, another multi-sport event and these Games were held in Scandinavia, and the sports conducted were winter sports such as cross-country skiing and speed skating. The Nordic Games were last held in 1926, after which the 1924 Winter Sports Week in Chamonix was declared the first Olympic Winter Games, in the 1920s, all kinds of other multi-sport events were set up. These were usually directed for a group of athletes, rather than everybody. Regional games were another kind of event that was established, such as the Far Eastern Championship Games
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Disabled sports
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Disabled sports, also adaptive sports or parasports, are sports played by persons with a disability, including physical and intellectual disabilities. As many disabled sports are based on existing able bodied sports, modified to meet the needs of persons with a disability, however, not all disabled sports are adapted, several sports that have been specifically created for persons with a disability have no equivalent in non-disabled sports. Disability exists in four categories, physical, mental, permanent, organized sport for athletes with a disability is generally divided into three broad disability groups, the deaf, people with physical disabilities, and people with intellectual disabilities. Each group has a history, organization, competition program. Formal international competition in sport began with the 1924 Paris Silent Games, organized by the Comité International des Sports des Sourds. These games evolved into the modern Deaflympics, governed by the CISS, the CISS maintains separate games for deaf athletes based on their numbers, their special communication needs on the sports field, and the social interaction that is a vital part of sports. Organized sport for persons with disabilities existed as early as 1911. One of the athletes was Walter William Francis, a Welshman. Later, events often developed out of rehabilitation programs, following the Second World War, in response to the needs of large numbers of injured ex-service members and civilians, sport was introduced as a key part of rehabilitation. Sport for rehabilitation grew into recreational sport and then into competitive sport, the pioneer of this approach was Sir Ludwig Guttmann of the Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England. In 1948, while the Olympic Games were being held in London and this was the origin of the Stoke Mandeville Games, which evolved into the modern Paralympic Games. The first official Paralympic Games, after the change, was held in Rome in 1960. In 1975, the Paralympic Games expanded to include those with limb amputations, individuals with cerebral palsy were allowed to compete beginning in 1980. Currently, Paralympic sport is governed by the International Paralympic Committee, one such program is the Wounded Warrior program, which offers sitting volleyball to injured service members. Some organizations also offer opportunities to family and friends of injured service members in addition to the members themselves. Sport for persons with intellectual disabilities began to be organized in the 1960s through the Special Olympics movement and this grew out of a series of summer camps organized by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, beginning in 1962. In 1968 the first international Special Olympics were held, in Chicago, today, Special Olympics provides training and competition in a variety of sports for persons with intellectual disabilities. Sport for persons with physical disabilities began to be organized in the US in the late 1960s through Disabled Sports USA, in 1970, Hal OLeary founded the National Sports Center for the Disabled at Winter Park in Colorado
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Paralympic association football
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Paralympic football consists of adaptations of the sport of association football for athletes with a physical disability. The two most prominent versions of Paralympic football are 5-a-side football for athletes with visual impairments, 5-a-side football, also known as futsal and blind football, is an adaptation of football for athletes with visual impairments including blindness. The sport, governed by the International football Sports Federation, is played with modified FIFA rules, the field of play is smaller, and is surrounded by boards. Teams are reduced to five players, including the goalkeeper, per team, teams may also use one guide, who is positioned off the field of play, to assist in directing players. The ball is equipped with a device to allow players to locate it by sound. Matches consist of two 25-minute halves, with a break at half-time. B2 - Partially sighted, able to recognise the shape of a hand up to an acuity of 2/60 or a visual field of less than 5 degrees. For Class B1 games, only athletes with sport class B1 are permitted as players, with the exception of the goalkeepers and the guides, who may be class B2, B3, or sighted. For Class B2/B3 games, teams can field players in sport classes B2 and B3, 5-a-side football in Europe was developed in Spain. The first Spanish national championships took place in Spain in 1986, in South America, there are records of a Brazilian Tournament organized in 1980. European and American Championships took place in 1997, followed by the first World Championships in 1998, the sport was added to the Summer Paralympic Games in 2004. Brazil was champion of the tournaments in 1998,2000,2010 and 2014. 7-a-side football is an adaptation of football for athletes with cerebral palsy and other neurological disorders, including stroke. The sport is governed by the Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association, the sport is played with modified FIFA rules. Among the modifications are a field of play, a reduction in the number of players, elimination of the offside rule. Matches consist of two halves, with a fifteen-minute half-time break. Players competing in 7-a-side football are given a class based on their level of disability. Eligible classes are, C5, Athletes with difficulties walking and running
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China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
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United States at the 2004 Summer Paralympics
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The United States sent a delegation to compete at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, Greece. A total of 235 U. S. competitors took part in 18 sports, the United States finished fourth in the gold and overall medal count, behind China, Great Britain and Canada. The following American athletes won medals at the games, United States at the 2004 Summer Olympics International Paralympic Committee Official Website United States Paralympic Committee Official Website
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Australia at the 2004 Summer Paralympics
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Australia competed at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, Greece. It was Australias 12th year of participation at the Paralympics, Australian competitors won 101 medals to finish fifth in the gold medal table and second on the total medal table. Australia competed in 12 sports and won medals in 8 sports, the Chef de Mission was Paul Bird. The IPC decision resulted in leading Australian athletes such as Siobhan Paton, leading Australian athletes included, Swimmer Matthew Cowdrey won a total of seven medals Swimmers Chantel Wolfenden and Prue Watt won six and five medals respectively. Tim Sullivan won four medals in athletics sprints events. The 2004 Summer Paralympics, formally known as Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was held from September 17 to September 28, the twelfth Paralympic Games, a total of 3,808 competitors from 135 countries participated. During these games 304 World Records were broken with 448 Paralympic Games Records being broken across 19 different sports, addition of judo and sitting volleyball for women and football 5-a-side for men were included. The event was possible through the help of 8,863 volunteers Louise Sauvage lit the cauldron during the opening ceremonies for the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney. In 2004, Sauvage carried the Australian flag into the opening ceremony stadium at what was her 4th Paralympic games and she has a Sydney ferry, a street and a pathway named after her, as well as numerous school sport houses around Australia. His amazing achievements were recognised and was chosen to carry the Australia flag at the Closing Ceremony of the Games and he also received a Medal of the Order of Australia and Swimmer of the Year with a Disability for success at the games. The Athens Paralympics saw record media attendance which is thought be attributed to the introduction of 5-a-side Football, Australia was a part of a collective viewing audience of 1.852 billion people around the world. There were 518 Medal events at the games, Australia brought home 101 medals, including a record 26 gold medals. The 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens were a precursor to the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, china dominated the medal count with more goal medals, more silver medals and more medals overall than any other nation. Australia had the second highest medal tally overall, Australia represented in archery, Women - Natalie Cordowiner Officials - Vicki OBrien Australias sole competitor did not win a medal. Leading athletes were Tim Sullivan, Kurt Fearnley and Amy Winters, leading cyclists were Christopher Scott, Greg Ball and Kieran Modra. Australia did not qualify for goalball Australia represented in judo, Men – Anthony Clarke Women – Desiree Allan Coach - Trevor Kschammer, Lara Sullivan Australia failed to win any medals. Australia represented in powerlifting, Men – Darren Gardiner, Steve Green, Wayne Sharpe Women - Deahnne McIntyre Coaches – Martin Leach and he originally finished third but was awarded the silver medal after Habibollah Mousavi, gold medallist in +100 kg was disqualified after a positive doping test. Matthew Cowdrey, in his first Paralympic Swim Team appearance, was Australias best performing swimmer winning 3 gold,2 silver and 2 bronze medals, Prue Watt won five silver and 2 bronze medals
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Chantal Petitclerc
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Chantal Petitclerc, CC, CQ, MSM is a Canadian wheelchair racer and a Senator from Quebec. At the age of 13, Petitclerc lost the use of legs in an accident when at a friends farm, a heavy barn door fell on her. In a 2011 interview, she stated that, really helped me get more fit and stronger, swimming also allowed her to discover her competitive drive. While she had previously been first in her class academically, it was her introduction to the world of competitive racing, when she was eighteen, Pierre Pomerleau, a trainer at Université Laval in Quebec City, introduced her to wheelchair sports. Using a homemade wheelchair, she took part in her first race and came last, however, she had fallen in love with wheelchair racing and a long and fruitful career had begun. Four years later, at the Atlanta games, she took gold medals in the 100 and 200 m events and three silvers in the 400,800, and 1500 m races. At the 2000 Summer Paralympics, she won two golds, in the 200 m and 800 m, and two silvers, in the 100 m and 400 m races. She won three medals and a bronze at the 2002 World Championships and a gold at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in the 800 m. At the 2004 Summer Olympics she won the 800 m, for her performance in 2008, she was awarded the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canadian athlete of the year and the Canadian Presss Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as Canadas female athlete of the year. With her 5 golds in the 2004 Paralympics, she tied the existing Canadian gold medal record at a single Games, Winter or Summer and her 5 golds in the 2008 Paralympics tied that record. As of 2010, the record still stood, as of 2012 she holds five world records for wheelchair racing. She was chosen as the flagbearer of the Canadian team at the ceremonies of the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Petitclerc lives in Montreal, and trains at Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard, Rio Tinto Alcan is her main sponsor since 1998. Petitclerc was named the Chef de Mission for Canada’s 2014 Commonwealth Games team and she was also named Chef de Mission for the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Petitclerc is married to music composer James Duhamel and gave birth to son Elliot in December 2013. On March 18,2016, Petitclerc was named to the Senate of Canada on the advice of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and she will sit as an Independent senator, not affiliated to any political party. Senator Petitclerc sits on two committees, Agriculture and Forestry and Social affairs, science and technology and her main priorities in the Senate are health as well as the rights of persons with disabilities. In June 2016, Senator Petitclerc delivered her first speech in the Chamber on Bill C-14, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and to make related amendments to other Acts
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Jonas Jacobsson
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Jonas Jacobsson is a Swedish sport shooter who has won several gold medals at the Paralympic Games. He has participated in nine consecutive Summer Paralympics from 1980 to 2012, winning a total of seventeen gold, in 1996, he won two gold medals in the air rifle 3×40 and English match events and a bronze in the air rifle prone at the Atlanta Paralympics. At the 2000 Summer Paralympics, he took two medals in the free rifle 3×40 and free rifle prone events and two bronzes in air rifle standing and air rifle prone events. Four years later, at the Athens Games, he competed in the four events. On 10 September 2008 Jacobsson won his 16th gold medal in the Paralympic Games making him the best performing male Paralympics contestant so far, later that year, he became the first physically disabled athlete to receive the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal, Swedens most significant sports award. Athletes with most gold medals in one event at the Paralympic Games Results for Jonas Jacobsson from the International Paralympic Committee
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Trischa Zorn
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Trischa Zorn is a United States swimmer. Blind from birth, she competes in Paralympic swimming and she is the most successful athlete in the history of the Paralympic Games, having won 55 medals, and was inducted into the Paralympic Hall of Fame in 2012. She took the Paralympic Oath for athletes at the 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta, Zorn studied at the University of Nebraska, and, as of 2001, teaches third and fourth graders with special needs in Indianapolis. She competed in the 1980,1984,1988,1992,1996,2000 and 2004 Paralympic Games, in the 1996 Games in Atlanta, she won more medals than any other athlete, two gold, three silver and three bronze. She had also topped the medal table at the 1992 Games in Barcelona, with ten gold medals. She had won seven medals during her first Games in 1980. Following the Athens Games in 2004, she had won 52 medals at the Paralympic Games, more than any other athlete, of those,37 were gold medals,10 were silver and 5 were bronze. After the Sydney Games in 2000, she also held eight world records in her disability category, on 1 January 2005, Zorn was one of eight athletes honoured during New Year celebrations in Times Square in New York City. The eight athletes were centre stage during the festivities in the leading up to ringing in the New Year. In 2012, she was inducted into the International Paralympian Hall of Fame, the medals without relay races from 1980 Summer Paralympics to 1988 Summer Paralympics, are 46 for IPC. The relay team of United States, in the category of Zorn, the question marks in the infobox refer however to 9 gold medals, this is to confirm the total number of 55, reported in many websites including that of the official IPC in another of his article
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Hippocrates
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Hippocrates of Kos, also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the Age of Pericles, and is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is referred to as the Father of Modern Medicine in recognition of his contributions to the field as the founder of the Hippocratic School of Medicine. Hippocrates is commonly portrayed as the paragon of the ancient physician, historians agree that Hippocrates was born around the year 460 BC on the Greek island of Kos, other biographical information, however, is likely to be untrue. Soranus of Ephesus, a 2nd-century Greek gynecologist, was Hippocrates first biographer and is the source of most personal information about him, later biographies are in the Suda of the 10th century AD, and in the works of John Tzetzes, which date from the 12th century AD. Hippocrates is mentioned in passing in the writings of two contemporaries, Plato, in Protagoras and Phaedrus, and, Aristotles Politics, which date from the 4th century BC. Soranus wrote that Hippocrates father was Heraclides, a physician, and his mother was Praxitela, the two sons of Hippocrates, Thessalus and Draco, and his son-in-law, Polybus, were his students. According to Galen, a physician, Polybus was Hippocrates true successor, while Thessalus. Soranus said that Hippocrates learned medicine from his father and grandfather, Hippocrates was probably trained at the asklepieion of Kos, and took lessons from the Thracian physician Herodicus of Selymbria. Hippocrates taught and practiced medicine throughout his life, traveling at least as far as Thessaly, Thrace, several different accounts of his death exist. He died, probably in Larissa, at the age of 83,85 or 90, Hippocrates is credited with being the first person to believe that diseases were caused naturally, not because of superstition and gods. Hippocrates was credited by the disciples of Pythagoras of allying philosophy, indeed there is not a single mention of a mystical illness in the entirety of the Hippocratic Corpus. However, Hippocrates did work with many convictions that were based on what is now known to be incorrect anatomy and physiology, ancient Greek schools of medicine were split on how to deal with disease. The Knidian school of medicine focused on diagnosis, Medicine at the time of Hippocrates knew almost nothing of human anatomy and physiology because of the Greek taboo forbidding the dissection of humans. The Knidian school consequently failed to distinguish when one disease caused many possible series of symptoms, the Hippocratic school or Koan school achieved greater success by applying general diagnoses and passive treatments. Its focus was on patient care and prognosis, not diagnosis and it could effectively treat diseases and allowed for a great development in clinical practice. Hippocratic medicine and its philosophy are far removed from that of modern medicine, now, the physician focuses on specific diagnosis and specialized treatment, both of which were espoused by the Knidian school. S. Houdart called the Hippocratic treatment a meditation upon death, after a crisis, a relapse might follow, and then another deciding crisis. According to this doctrine, crises tend to occur on critical days, if a crisis occurred on a day far from a critical day, a relapse might be expected
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Olive
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Olea europeana sylvestris is a subspecies that corresponds to a smaller tree bearing noticeably smaller fruits. The olives fruit, also called the olive, is of agricultural importance in the Mediterranean region as the source of olive oil. The tree and its fruit give their name to the plant family, which includes species such as lilacs, jasmine, Forsythia. The word derives from Latin ŏlīva a borrowing from the Greek ἐλαία, the oldest attested forms of the Greek words are the Mycenaean
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Allegory
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As a literary device, an allegory is a metaphor whose vehicle may be a character, place or event, representing real-world issues and occurrences. Many ancient religions are based on astrological allegories, that is, allegories of the movement of the sun, in classical literature two of the best-known allegories are the Cave in Platos Republic and the story of the stomach and its members in the speech of Menenius Agrippa. One of the examples of allegory, Platos Allegory of the Cave. In this allegory, Plato describes a group of people who have lived chained in an all of their lives. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows, using language to identify their world. He tries to tell the people in the cave of his discovery, also allegorical is Ezekiel 16 and 17, wherein the capture of that same vine by the mighty Eagle represents Israels exile to Rome. Allegory has an ability to freeze the temporality of a story, Mediaeval thinking accepted allegory as having a reality underlying any rhetorical or fictional uses. The allegory was as true as the facts of surface appearances, if, then, the Greeks or others say that they were not committed to the care of Peter and his successors, they necessarily confess that they are not of the sheep of Christ. This text also demonstrates the frequent use of allegory in religious texts during the Mediaeval Period, following the tradition, since meaningful stories are nearly always applicable to larger issues, allegories may be read into many stories which the author may not have recognised. This is allegoresis, or the act of reading a story as an allegory. S, lewis and A Kingdom Far and Clear, The Complete Swan Lake Trilogy by Mark Helprin. The story of the apple falling onto Isaac Newtons head is another famous allegory and it simplified the idea of gravity by depicting a simple way it was supposedly discovered. It also made the scientific revelation well known by condensing the theory into a short tale. According to Henry Littlefields 1964 article, L. Yet, George MacDonald emphasised in 1893 that, A fairy tale is not an allegory, I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and this further reinforces the idea of forced allegoresis, as allegory is often a matter of interpretation and only sometimes of original artistic intention. Like allegorical stories, allegorical poetry has two meanings – a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning, some unique specimens of allegory can be found in the following works, Edmund Spenser – The Faerie Queene, The several knights in the poem actually stand for several virtues. Nathaniel Hawthorne – Young Goodman Brown, The Devils Staff symbolises defiance of God, the characters names, such as Goodman and Faith, ironically serve as paradox in the conclusion of the story. Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter, The scarlet letter symbolises many things, the characters, while developed with interiority, are allegorical in that they represent ways of seeing the world. George Orwell – Animal Farm, The pigs stand for political figures of the Russian Revolution, lászló Krasznahorkai - The Melancholy of Resistance and the film Werckmeister Harmonies, It uses a circus to describe an occupying dysfunctional government
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Hephaestos
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Hephaestus is the Greek god of blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was the son of Zeus and Hera, in another version, he was Heras parthenogenous child, rejected by his mother because of his deformity and thrown off Mount Olympus and down to earth. As a smithing god, Hephaestus made all the weapons of the gods in Olympus and he served as the blacksmith of the gods, and was worshipped in the manufacturing and industrial centers of Greece, particularly Athens. The cult of Hephaestus was based in Lemnos, Hephaestus symbols are a smiths hammer, anvil, and a pair of tongs. The name of the god in Greek has a root which can be observed in names of places of Pre-Greek origin, Hephaestus had his own palace on Olympus, containing his workshop with anvil and twenty bellows that worked at his bidding. Hephaestus crafted much of the magnificent equipment of the gods, in later accounts, Hephaestus worked with the help of the chthonic Cyclopes—among them his assistants in the forge, Brontes, Steropes and Pyracmon. Hephaestus built automatons of metal to work for him and this included tripods that walked to and from Mount Olympus. He gave to the blinded Orion his apprentice Cedalion as a guide, in some versions of the myth, Prometheus stole the fire that he gave to man from Hephaestuss forge. Hephaestus also created the gift that the gods gave to man, being a skilled blacksmith, Hephaestus created all the thrones in the Palace of Olympus. The Greek myths and the Homeric poems sanctified in stories that Hephaestus had a power to produce motion. He made the golden and silver lions and dogs at the entrance of the palace of Alkinoos in such a way that they could bite the invaders, the Greeks maintained in their civilization an animistic idea that statues are in some sense alive. This kind of art and the animistic belief goes back to the Minoan period, when Daedalus, a statue of the god was somehow the god himself, and the image on a mans tomb indicated somehow his presence. Homers Odyssey and Iliad have Hephaestus being born of the union of Zeus, in another tradition, attested by Hesiod, Hera bore Hephaestus alone. In Hesiods Zeus-centered cosmology, Hera gave birth to Hephaestus as revenge for Zeus giving birth to Athena without her, several later texts follow Hesiods account, including Bibliotheke, Hyginus, and the preface to Fabulae. In the account of Attic vase painters, Hephaestus was present at the birth of Athena, in the latter account, Hephaestus is there represented as older than Athena, so the mythology of Hephaestus is inconsistent in this respect. In one branch of Greek mythology, Hera ejected Hephaestus from the heavens because he was shrivelled of foot and he fell into the ocean and was raised by Thetis and the Oceanid Eurynome. In another account, Hephaestus, attempting to rescue his mother from Zeus advances, was flung down from the heavens by Zeus. He fell for a day and landed on the island of Lemnos
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Zeus
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Zeus /ˈzjuːs/ is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter and his mythologies and powers are similar, though not identical, to those of the Indo-European deities such as Indra, Jupiter, Perun, Thor, and Odin. Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, in most traditions, he is married to Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus. At the oracle of Dodona, his consort was said to be Dione, Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses. He was equated with many foreign weather gods, permitting Pausanias to observe That Zeus is king in heaven is a common to all men. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak, in addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical cloud-gatherer also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the Ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses, standing, striding forward with a thunderbolt leveled in his right hand. The gods name in the nominative is Ζεύς Zeús and it is inflected as follows, vocative, Ζεῦ Zeû, accusative, Δία Día, genitive, Διός Diós, dative, Διί Dií. Diogenes Laertius quotes Pherecydes of Syros as spelling the name, Ζάς, Zeus is the Greek continuation of *Di̯ēus, the name of the Proto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky, also called *Dyeus ph2tēr. The god is known under this name in the Rigveda, Latin, Zeus is the only deity in the Olympic pantheon whose name has such a transparent Indo-European etymology. The earliest attested forms of the name are the Mycenaean Greek
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Hera
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Hera is the goddess of women and marriage in Greek mythology and religion. She is the daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, Hera is married to her brother Zeus and is titled as the Queen of Heaven. One of her characteristics is her jealous and vengeful nature against Zeuss other lovers and offspring, Hera is commonly seen with the animals she considers sacred including the cow, lion and the peacock. Scholar of Greek mythology Walter Burkert writes in Greek Religion, Nevertheless, there are memories of an aniconic representation, as a pillar in Argos. Her counterpart in the religion of ancient Rome was Juno, According to Plutarch, Hera was an allegorical name and an anagram of aēr. So begins the section on Hera in Walter Burkerts Greek Religion, in a note, he records other scholars arguments for the meaning Mistress as a feminine to Heros, Master. John Chadwick, a decipherer of Linear B, remarks her name may be connected with hērōs, ἥρως, hero, a. J. van Windekens, offers young cow, heifer, which is consonant with Heras common epithet βοῶπις. R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin and her name is attested in Mycenaean Greek written in the Linear B syllabic script as
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Turkmenistan
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Turkmenistan has been at the crossroads of civilizations for centuries. In medieval times, Merv was one of the cities of the Islamic world and an important stop on the Silk Road. Annexed by the Russian Empire in 1881, Turkmenistan later figured prominently in the movement in Central Asia. In 1924, Turkmenistan became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, Turkmenistan possesses the worlds fourth largest reserves of natural gas resources. Most of the country is covered by the Karakum Desert, since 1993, citizens have received government-provided electricity, water and natural gas free of charge. Turkmenistan was ruled by President for Life Saparmurat Niyazov until his death in 2006, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow was elected president in 2007. According to Human Rights Watch, Turkmenistan remains one of the world’s most repressive countries, after suspending the death penalty, the use of capital punishment was formally abolished in the 2008 constitution. Historically inhabited by the Indo-Iranians, the history of Turkmenistan begins with its annexation by the Achaemenid Empire of Ancient Iran. In the 8th century AD, Turkic-speaking Oghuz tribes moved from Mongolia into present-day Central Asia, part of a powerful confederation of tribes, these Oghuz formed the ethnic basis of the modern Turkmen population. In the 10th century, the name Turkmen was first applied to Oghuz groups that accepted Islam, There they were under the dominion of the Seljuk Empire, which was composed of Oghuz groups living in present-day Iran and Turkmenistan. Turkmen soldiers in the service of the played a important role in the spreading of Turkic culture when they migrated westward into present-day Azerbaijan. In the 12th century, Turkmen and other tribes overthrew the Seljuk Empire, in the next century, the Mongols took over the more northern lands where the Turkmens had settled, scattering the Turkmens southward and contributing to the formation of new tribal groups. The sixteenth and eighteenth centuries saw a series of splits and confederations among the nomadic Turkmen tribes, by the 16th century, most of those tribes were under the nominal control of two sedentary Uzbek khanates, Khiva and Bukhoro. Turkmen soldiers were an important element of the Uzbek militaries of this period, in the 19th century, raids and rebellions by the Yomud Turkmen group resulted in that groups dispersal by the Uzbek rulers. According to Paul R. Spickard, Prior to the Russian conquest, Russian forces began occupying Turkmen territory late in the 19th century. From their Caspian Sea base at Krasnovodsk, the Russians eventually overcame the Uzbek khanates, in 1916 the Russian Empires participation in World War I resonated in Turkmenistan, as an anticonscription revolt swept most of Russian Central Asia. In 1924 the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic was formed from the tsarist province of Transcaspia, by the late 1930s, Soviet reorganization of agriculture had destroyed what remained of the nomadic lifestyle in Turkmenistan, and Moscow controlled political life. The Ashgabat earthquake of 1948 killed over 110,000 people, during the next half-century, Turkmenistan played its designated economic role within the Soviet Union and remained outside the course of major world events
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Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
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France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
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Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
China
Great Britain
Canada
United States
Australia
Ukraine
Spain
Germany
France
Japan
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