The 1968 and 1992 Paralympic Games: A Comparison between Two Organizational Models in Different Historical Contexts

In 1968 for the first time the Paralympics did not take place in the same city or country as the Olympics, since Mexico announced that it would not be able to host the Paralympic Games there due to technical difficulties. At the time, Israel, which had experience in the rehabilitation of disabled athletes, offered itself to host the Games in Tel Aviv and connected this event with the 20th Anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel. Twenty-four years later, the 1992 Paralympics was managed by the same organizing committee and in the same facilities of the Barcelona Olympic Games. It reinforced the city’s urban regeneration in order to eliminate physical barriers which disabled people faced in their interactions with the built environment. This paper analyzes the economic and management features, as well as discusses the socio-economic impacts of both Games, so as to highlight their specific context. Nevertheless, little attention has been placed on topics about the circumstances of both Paralympic editions, a fact that reflects the reality that academic literature on the Paralympic Games is much less extensive than that which is available on the Olympic Games. This research proves, by a comparison of two different editions of the same sport mega-event, that the gap of 24 years between Tel Aviv’68 and Barcelona’92 was marked by a deep and holistic transformation and evolution of the Paralympic Movement.