17 Slovenian athletes will participate at the Sydney Paralympic Games From 18 to 29 October 2000 the Paralympic Games will be held in Sydney. 4000 athletes from 127 countries will participate. The competition venues, as well as the accommodation, will be the same as for the Olympic Games which will end on 1 October. The Slovenian team will comprise of 17 athletes competing in the following disciplines: athletics: Dragica Lapornik, Franjo Izlakar, Janez Hudej, Janez Roskar, Marko Sever swimming: Danijel Pavlinec table tennis: Andreja Dolinar, Saso Suligoj goalball: (a game with a ringing ball for the blind and partially sighted): Zlatko Mihajlovic, Erlend More, Ivan Vinkler, Bostjan Vogrincic, Vojko Stor, Igor Zagar; reserve: Gorazd Dolanc. shooting: Franci Pinter, Srecko Majcenovic, Ernest Jazbinsek. The head of the Slovenian team is Branko Mihorko; the medical doctor Dr Helena Burger. The athletes will be accompanied by 7 trainers and their assistants. In addition, more than 10,000 volunteers will participate at the Olympic Games together with some 1,200 reporters who will provide coverage of games. Today, sport for disabled includes all groups of physically, sensory or mentally disabled people. Since the Rome Olympics in 1960, the Paralympic Games have become a part of the regular Olympic year sporting programme. In Slovenia, sports for the disabled began to be developed after 1949; a year after the Sports for the Disabled Association of Slovenia (ZSIS) was founded. Disabled athletes regularly take part in international competitions and since 1972 also in the Paralympic Games. In the last eight years (i.e. since 1992) they have won 163 medals in various international competitions: 56 of them gold, 52 silver and 55 bronze. They won two gold and one bronze medal at the Paralympic Games in Barcelona and two silver and three bronze medals at the Atlanta Paralympics. Review of Summer Paralympic Games     countries athletes 1960 Rome, Italy 23 400 1964 Tokyo, Japan 22 390 1968 Tel Aviv, Israel 29 750 1972 Heidelberg, Germany 44 1,000 1976 Toronto, Canada 42 1,600 1980 Arnhem, the Netherlands 42 2,500 1984* Stoke Mandeville, GB 45 2,300   New York, USA 41 1,700 1988 Seoul, Korea 61 3,053 1992 Barcelona, Spain 82 3,020 1996 Atlanta, USA 103 3,195 2000 Sydney, Australia 127 4,000 *In 1984, the Paralympic Games were organised at two venues. Sport for disabled first began to develop as an organised and professionally managed activity in Great Britain after the end of the Second World War from where it spread within a few years into Europe and elsewhere in the world. It forms a significant part of the sporting activities of every modern country. In the lives of the disabled, it represents an important factor in people's quality of life. It promotes physical activity, helps to overcome feelings of inferiority, and of no less significance, leads to the establishing of new international ties and friendships.