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Click here to return to News and Events. ParaLions news: Paralympic Sports on the lookout for Ireland's next Paralympic generationApril 2009The Paralympic Council of Ireland (PCI)* would like you to know about the ParaLions Athlete Search Day to be held in Dublin City University Sports Complex on Saturday May 2nd 2009. The event will feature Irish athletes who competed at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, along with a number of sports demonstrations and a series of exhibition stands for each sport involved. The athlete search day is a coordinated effort by all the Paralympic sports in Ireland to encourage people with physical disabilities and vision impairments to participate in sport, with the ultimate aim of unearthing Irish talent for the London 2012 Paralympic Games and beyond. Each sport will provide information on how to get involved, in addition to which, those attending on the day will be given the opportunity to try out sports alongside Irelands premier athletes. The sports demonstrations include Table Tennis, Boccia, Football, Wheelchair Basketball & Wheelchair Rugby. The highlight of the day will be a series of Athlete Testimonials in which Irish Paralympians will outline their story of their involvement in Paralympic Sport. The testimonials will be given by: If you have a physical disability or vision impairment, this is a fantastic opportunity to come along, meet Ireland's Paralympic heroes and participate alongside them. The Paralympic movement in Ireland wants to see you and urges you to attend for at least a portion of the day on May 2nd at DCU and, who knows, this could be start of your path to representing Ireland at the Paralympic Games! The sports participating on the day include: Speaking about the ParaLions Athlete Search Day, Beijing 2008 Gold Medalist Michael McKillop stated: "It's great to see the PCI mobilising all the Paralympic sports in order to showcase the opportunity that Paralympic sport provides. I urge all people with disabilities to come along on the day and get involved. It should be a great day out and hopefully we will see some of the people that come along progress to the Irish Team at future Paralympic Games". Further information is available on www.pcireland.ie * ParaLions is a PCI awareness programme involving the provision of an online resource booklet for young people interested in taking up Paralympic sport which contains a questionnaire to assist the Paralympic Council of Ireland (PCI) in building a database of interested individuals with disabilities. The PCI use this database to channel these individuals to sports they are interested in, and crucially to sports that suit their Paralympic classification profile. **The Paralympic Council of Ireland was founded in 1987 and is responsible for the preparation and management of the Irish team in the lead up to, and at, the Paralympic Games every four years. ***Olympic style games for athletes with a physical disability were first held in Rome in 1960. Today, the Paralympics are elite sport events for athletes with physical and sensory disability. They emphasise the participants' athletic achievements rather than their disability. The movement has grown dramatically since its first days. The number of athletes participating in Summer Paralympic Games has increased from 400 athletes from 23 countries in Rome in 1960 to 4000 athletes from 153 countries set to compete in Beijing in 2008. For further information: |
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