The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has announced to extended its global partnership with German prosthetics company Ottobock until 2032.
Ottobock has been a partner of the Paralympics since the 1998 games in Seoul.
After the development, it will now continue to hand its technical maintenance services to athletes for the next six Paralympic Games.
Commenting on the move, IPC president Andrew Parsons said: “Ottobock are a powerhouse in the Paralympic Village – at the Games they quite literally keep the athletes moving.”
“The presence of Ottobock’s dedicated and knowledgeable staff in the Village is so reassuring for athletes, as they know there is someone trusted to solve their technical issues should they arise. I am thrilled that Ottobock are partnering with the IPC at the Paralympic Games until at least 2032, and are going to continue to be a valued member of the Paralympic movement,” he added.
On the other hand, Ottobock’s chief executive, Philipp Schulte-Noelle expressed: “The Paralympic Games show society how powerful sports can be. They prove just how much people can achieve if they train with focus on a goal and believe in themselves. But they do more than that – they help to overcome barriers, and they epitomise courage, diversity and openness.”
“I’m proud that our company is a part of this and can continue to play its part in the future,” he added.
Significantly, during the recently concluded Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, Ottobock’s technical staff offered free athlete assistance over 2,000 times.
During the last 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio, the then IPC’s president Sir Philip Craven had announced that Ottobock had agreed to extend its world-wide partnership to the end of 2020, encompassing the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
The 2020 Summer Paralympics featured 539 events in 22 sports. Badminton and taekwondo made their Paralympic debut in Tokyo, while classifications were added or realigned in other sports; canoe, shooting, table tennis, track cycling, and wheelchair fencing saw increases in the number of medal events held, while there were reductions in athletics and swimming.
A total of 162 nations including Refugee Paralympic Team and Russian Paralympic Committee participated in the games which concluded on September 5. As many as 4,403 para-athletes featured in the games across 539 events from 22 different sports.
Ottobock is a German prosthetics company situated in Duderstadt with 49 local stations all around the world. It has been responsible for several innovations in prosthetics, including the C-Leg, a computerized knee joint that adaptively varies its passive resistance to suit the patient’s different walking gaits, and the Michelangelo Hand, a fully articulated robotic hand prosthesis.