The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is the international governing body of sports for athletes with a disability.

The IPC supervises and coordinates the Paralympic Summer and Winter Games and other multi-disability competitions, of which the most important are World and Regional Championships. It is an international non-profit organisation, formed and run by 161 National Paralympic Committees and four disability-specific international sports federations.

The history of the Paralympic movement is relatively new and goes back to 1948, when Sir Ludwig Guttmann introduced the first Stoke Mandeville Games for World War II veterans with spinal cord-related injuries. Later, other disability groups also established their international sports organisations, which arranged various competitions.

The Paralympic Games have always been held in the same year as the Olympic Games. Since the Seoul Summer Games (1988) and the Albertville Winter Games (1992), they have also taken place at the same venues as the Olympic Games. On 19 June 2001, an agreement was signed between the International Olympic Committee and the IPC aiming to secure and protect the organisation of the Paralympic Games.