Hyderabad: Google continued its tradition of celebrating significant global events and conveying social messages with innovative doodles on Friday by bringing to the fore the sport of wheelchair basketball. The illustration used in the doodle showed a Summer Games bird performing a solid slam dunk. It appeared that the bird tossed the basketball into a green-coloured net.
Team USA scored a victory on the opening day of the Games over Spain by 66-56. Alabama Paralympian Ignacio Ortega Lafuente who was representing Spain dished out a clinical performance scoring 17 points.
Wheelchair basketball started as a rehabilitation activity for injured World War II. According to the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation, the sport was first played in 1945 in two hospitals in the United States. Google Doodle has an illustration which shows wheelchair basketball and by clicking it users can check the schedule for the sport in the ongoing Paris Paralympics.
Wheelchair basketball at the Paris Paralympics
In the 1960 Rome Games, wheelchair basketball was included in the Paralympics for the first time. The USA won gold medals in both the basketball events played in the competition.
In the Paris Games, eight men's and women’s teams will participate which is a significant reduction from the number of 12 teams in the previous edition. The qualification for the event took place by Zonal Championships as the top four nations from each zone secured a berth. The repechage tournament was another opportunity for the teams who missed out on the opportunity in the Zonal Championships.
