Even as the 13th Paralympics in Beijing are still ongoing in sold-out arenas, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the medical technology company Otto Bock HealthCare have extended their current cooperation agreement to 2012. This means the contract term covers the 2010 Paralympics in Vancouver as well as the 2012 games in London.
With many members and friends of the Paralympics family in attendance, IPC President Sir Philip Craven and Professor Hans Georg Näder, chairman and CEO of the Otto Bock Group signed the cooperation agreement in the IPC Lounge in Beijing. This lays the foundation for continued successful cooperation, which began with a partnership agreement covering the 2006 games in Turin and the current 2008 Paralympics in Beijing and was also concluded in Beijing back in 2005. Otto Bock also entered into cooperation agreements with the respective organization committees for those games.
Otto Bock has been committed to professional disability sports since 1988 in Seoul, where it, as Official Service Provider, sent an international technician team to the Paralympic Games. In Athens 2004, Otto Bock technicians performed 2500 technical interventions. Many of these were last-minute efforts that allowed the athletes to get to their starting blocks just in time.
"We welcome the opportunity of offering our competence, our global presence and our top experience with orthopedic technology for disability sports worldwide," says Prof. Hans Georg Näder. "The partnership agreement with the IPC is the foundation for the continuity of our support for athletes from all over the world."
Click here for the official web site of the International Paralympic Comittee: http://www.paralympic.org
