Key facts you need to know about the Paralympic Winter Games

Editor's note: The Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games will be held from March 4 to 13 and will feature 736 Para athletes and 78 medal events. The Winter Paralympic Games have been inspiring us alongside the Summer Games for over forty years, but when did they actually start and why? Whether you've always loved snow and ice sports or you're just beginning to discover these athletes taking on the snowy slopes and freezing temperatures for a chance to win gold, here are some fascinating facts you'll want to know.

I. The history of Winter Paralympics

The precursor to what we now know as the Paralympic Games was an event organized by Sir Ludwig Guttman in 1948. In 1944 Guttmann, a German-born English neurosurgeon, took charge of the National Spinal Injuries Unit at Stoke Mandeville. He organized an archery contest among 16 disabled patients on July 29, 1948, eventually evolving into the International Stoke Mandeville Games and finally the Paralympic Games.

The flame of the Paralympic Winter Games is called the Paralympic Heritage Flame.

The very first Winter Paralympic Games took place in Sweden in 1976, where nearly 200 athletes from 16 different countries completed for gold. The winter games have continued to excite and inspire the world every four years since.

Sepp Zwicknagl, a pioneer of snow sports for disabled athletes, was a double-leg amputee Austrian skier who experimented with skiing using prosthetics. His work helped pioneer technological advances for people with disabilities who wished to participate in winter sports.

While Zwicknagl's work helped progress winter sports for disabled athletes, advances were still much slower than summer sports and it was not until 1974 that the first official ski competition for physically impaired athletes was held.

Austria and Norway hosted the games twice: Austria in 1984 and 1988 and Norway in 1980 and 1994.