The Paralympic Movement has its origins in the Stoke Mandeville Games, which began in 1948 as an archery tournament. Retroactively, the 1960 edition in Rome is considered the first Paralympics, as it was the first to be held outside of Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England.
While the term has been used since the early years of the event, the first official use of 'Paralympics' came during the Tokyo 1964 Games.[1] Both these games, as well as Tel Aviv 1968 and Heidelberg 1972 are all officially considered Paralympic Games; all being editions of the Stoke Mandeville Games held internationally. Toronto 1976 was the first edition of the Paralympics held entirely independent from the original event; which since formed the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation and continues today as the IWAS World Games.
This was first used as the logo for the Seoul 1988 games; the first Paralympics held in tandem to the Olympics in the same city since 1964. The International Olympic Committee deemed this logo too similar to the Olympic Rings to serve as the International Paralympics Committee logo and requested that it be changed.
Rejected design (1991)
1994–2003[]
Designer:
Unknown
Typography:
None
Launched:
1994
This logo takes inspiration from the former, taking the number of segments down to 3. The colours red, green and blue were chosen as they are the three most commonly used colours on national flags. It was used from the Lillehammer 1994 winter games up to the Athens 2004 summer games when the new logo had already officially taken effect.
2003–present[]
2003–2021[]
Designer:
Scholz & Friends
Typography:
None
Launched:
5 April 2003
This logo is derived from the latin term Agitos which means "I move".[2] The three ticks encircle a singular point, symbolising motion and the meeting of athletes from across the globe for competition. This logo was presented at the closing ceremony of the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games and it was first used on a game emblem during the Torino 2006 winter games. This emblem made its final appearance in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games (although TV broadcasts used the 2019 emblem instead).
Print variant
2019–present[]
Designer:
North
Typography:
None
Launched:
20 Oct 2019
On October 20, 2019, the International Paralympic Committee refreshed the look of the Agitos, which now use the same red, blue and green shades of the Olympic Rings.[3] This change came the day before the emblems for the Paris 2024 games were revealed.