2008 Paralympic Games - Beijing

30 New Zealand athletes will compete at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing across 7 sports: athletics, Boccia, cycling, powerlifting, shooting, swimming and wheelchair rugby.

The Paralympic Games is an elite sporting event for athletes with physical, mental and sensorial disabilities, including mobility disabilities, amputees, visual disabilities and those with cerebral palsy.

The NZ team is headed by Gold medalists Tim Prendergast (Captain), Matt Slade (both in athletics) and Michael Johnson (shooting). Tim Johnson, Dan Buckingham, Jai Waite, Curtis Palmer, Gerry Tinker and Sholto Taylor are the gold medal-winning Wheel Blacks, who will also be going to Beijing to defend their title.

Liam Sanders, Maurice Toon, Jeremy Morriss (Boccia), and Daniel Sharp (swimming) are other team members who won medals in Athens. Current world record holders Paula Tesoriero (cycling) and Jessica Hamill (athletics) will be ones to watch, along with other debut athletes including the youngest team member - 15-year-old Sophie Pascoe (swimming).

In 1948, Sir Ludwig Guttmann organized a sports competition involving World War II veterans with a spinal cord injury. This concept grew and 400 athletes from 23 countries attended the inaugural Summer Paralympic Games in Rome in 1960. This year, Beijing is expected to welcome 4,000 athletes from more than 160 countries.