The Google Doodle for March 9, 2018 celebrates the start of the Winter Paralympics 2018 games.
Over the course of 10 days, over six hundred athletes from 80 countries will take part in the games, aiming to win as many of the 80 awards up for grabs.
What are the Paralympics?
The Paralympic Games are a multi-sport international competition that features athletes with disabilities that include limb deficiency, limited muscle power like paraplegia and muscular dystrophy, vision impairment and more.
The Games are organised by the International Paralympic Committee, whose vision is: ‘To enable Para athletes to achieve sporting excellence and inspire and excite the world.’
See here for more information about the history of the Paralympics and how to watch the Winter Paralympics 2018.
When was the first Paralympic Games ?
The very first Paralympic Games were held in September 1960 in Rome, following the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics. These first Paralympic Games featured eight sports that were deemed to be ‘beneficial and suitable for athletes with spinal cord injuries’.
When and where are the Winter Paralympics 2018?
The Winter Paralympics 2018 take place between Friday, March 9 and Sunday, March 18.
The Games, in keeping with the tradition of one city hosting both the Olympics and the Paralympics, will be held in PyeongChang, South Korea.
Fireworks erupt at the Paralympics opening ceremony at the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium
When was the Paralympics 2018 opening ceremony?
The opening ceremony marks the beginning of the Games and the Winter Paralympics 2018 opening ceremony will be held on March 9.
For more information about times and how to watch the Winter Paralympics 2018 opening ceremony, see here.
What is a Google Doodle?
Google Doodles are Google’s way of celebrating cultural events and significant historical moments around the world. Past Google Doodles include a tribute to the physicist Max Born, the author Virginia Woolf and the discoverer of photosynthesis, Jan Ingenhousz.
These tributes and celebrations are referenced on the Google homepage with a doodle – an illustration or animation – that is incorporated into the Google logo.
Early black and white concepts of the 2018 Paralympic Games Google Doodle are pictured
The very first Google Doodle was a stick man standing behind the second ‘o’ in Google. This was the Google founders’, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, way of paying tribute to their trip to that year’s Burning Man Festival.
When users responded positively to the frequent changes to Google’s homepage logo, the Doodles became a daily feature on it.
Today, a team of ‘Doodlers’ – illustrators, graphic designers, animators and artists – work on the Google Doodles. The logos are hyperlinked to a page that provides the reader with more information about the cultural event being celebrated.
The Google Doodle celebrating the Paralympics 2018 says: ‘Today’s Doodle represents athletes from each of the sports in competition, all racing together to capture a spot on the podium.
‘Good luck to all and let the games begin!’