France to Play Host to 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships

Lyon, France will play host to the 2013 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletics World Championships, the IPC announced Friday (9 December).

The Championships – the next major international Athletics event following the London 2012 Paralympic Games – will run from 20-29 July 2013 and are expected to draw nearly 2,000 athletes from 118 countries.

A full nine days of competition will be organized by Handisport France in conjunction with the IPC, beginning with a stunning Opening Ceremony and concluding with the Marathon event and a Closing Ceremony.

“We expect nothing but extremely high levels of competition in Lyon,” IPC CEO Xavier Gonzalez said.

“With the London 2012 Parlaympic Games just around the corner, I can already tell you that the competition for the World Championships the following year is going to show everyone how far Athletics has come as an elite sport.”

The most recent IPC Athletics World Championships were held in January 2011 in Christchurch, New Zealand, where 57 world and 173 championship records were broken. China led the standings with 21 gold and 58 total medals, while Russia finished second and Brazil third.

The last time the event was held in France was in 2002, when Lille staged the Championships.

Laurent Allard will serve as Managing Director of Handisport France, and his team’s bid to host the event has been supported by: Ministry for Sport, Regional Council of Rhone-Alpes, General Council of Rhone, French Athletics Federation and French Olympic and Sports Committee.

For more information on IPC Athletics, please visit http://ipc-athletics.paralympic.org/.