• athlete
• disability
• injury
• olympics
• rehabilitation

‘Para’ is derived from the Greek word παράλληλα and is a medical prefix meaning ‘alongside’ (cf. parathyroid). Hence, the Paralympics takes place ‘alongside’ the Olympic Games. Since the first Paralympic Games in Rome 1960, the event has grown from 400 athletes from 23 countries to become the third largest sporting event in the world with over 4328 athletes representing 159 countries in Rio 2016.1 Paralympic Games comprise 22 summer sports and 6 winter sports with participation by athletes with a diverse range of physical, sensory and cognitive impairments. However, the science and medicine needed to support these athletes have evolved more slowly. In 1992, there were just nine articles in a PubMed search of the entire literature relating to ‘Disability or Paralympic Sport’. Over the last decade, that same search reveals 590 articles, and 101 in the last year, but the breadth of authorship and expertise is narrow. As clinicians and scientists, how do we enhance care of the Para athlete, the International Paralympic Committee‘s term for an athlete with a disability, and encourage further expansion of the scientific literature to provide an evidence-based approach?

We propose four key interventions, abbreviated to the acronym CARE, that may elevate the standard of sport and exercise medicine for athletes with disability.