The Paralympics' roots lie in the initial Stoke-Mandeville Games of 1948, a multi-sport event for British World War II veterans that began the day before the London Opening Ceremony. The event went international four years later, as Dutch athletes joined Great Britain at the same location in 1952. The Olympic Movement added a "parallel" event for disabled athletes at Rome 1960 -- it's important to note that the Paralympics name is not derived from "parapalegic" or "paralysis."

A winter gathering was added in 1976, but was not held in the same city as the Winter Olympic Games until Albertville 1992. The summer games have only been tied to the Olympic host city since 1988 -- they have been held in entirely separate countries throughout their history, i.e. Tel Aviv, Israel in 1968 (Mexico City), Arnhem, Netherlands in 1980 (Moscow), and a joint 1984 hosting by New York and the original home of the Stoke-Mandeville Games in England (Los Angeles).

The summer event has grown from 400 athletes 48 years ago to over 4,800 from 148 nations who will compete in the XIII Summer Paralympic Games, which begin on Saturday in Beijing. Events in twenty disciplines will be held over 12 days, and this blog will post daily updates with pictures.

Here are some other recent updates from around the Olympics:

EQUESTRIAN: This week, it was revealed that a sixth horse (in addition to the four caught for painkillers during the Games) tested positive for an IOC-banned drug. Rufus, the mount of Brazil's Rodrigo Pessoa, was found to have ingested nonivamide, a organic pain-relieving substance similar to the compound found in the first four horses. Rufus finished fifth in the show jumping at Hong Kong last month. Last week, American Courtney King's Mythilus (felbiniac) was the fifth horse to test positive. The horse-doping scandal will likely result in Norway losing its team-jumping bronze.

ATHLETICS: Speaking of drugs, the Greek Olympic team had severe image problems with 11 weightlifting positives in April, then lost Athens 2004's 400 meter champion Fani Halkia with a pre-competition test. Experts claim that Greece took part in organized doping with its 15 total test failures, trying to sneak previously unrecorded anabolic methyltrienolone past the IOC. The IOC, for their part, have sued Greek track coach Alexandros Lykourezos.

Happily, the post-Games news isn't all drug-related. On Tuesday, Jamaica's Usain Bolt -- now the world record-holder in both the 100m (9.69) and 200m (19.30) -- ran a 19.63 200 meter dash at the Athletissima Grand Prix meet, held in the Olympic Movement's home city of Lausanne, Switzerland. That's .03 under Michael Johnson's 19.66 mark from the 1996 U.S. Olympic trials that he would break later that year in Atlanta with a 19.32.

And in another hint of the ongoing intranational rivalry that's fueled Bolt to new heights, countryman Asafa Powell ran the 100 in 9.72 at the same meet. A month ago, that would have been a world record.

Lastly, it's not too early to start thinking about London 2012, just over 1400 days away and approaching fast. The organizing committee (LOCOG) is considering an Opening Ceremony concept that would not just take place at a central stadium, but around the entire city.

"We don't want to try to emulate Beijing," [Olympics Minister Tessa ] Jowell told the Independent in an interview. "What we want is new ways of thinking about the opening ceremony. "We want the whole of London to be involved, with different parts of London taking part in the ceremony. The London Games must be deeply democratic, with the city's citizens feeling they're intimately involved."

The first torchbearer Zhu Hongyan (second from left) carries the torch during the Paralympic Torch Relay in Luoyang, Henan province, on Sept. 4, 2008. Photo credit: Xinhua