Editing 1996 Summer Paralympics (section)

==A different kind of competition==
Shortly after the IPC announced that Atlanta's civil society proposal to host the Paralympics. Another race against time had started, and this one was seen as the worst, as the bidding committee had to get corporate and large sponsors. During the bidding campaign companies like [[Microsoft]], [[Coca-Cola]], [[CNN]] and [[Home Depot]] were originally committed to buy sponsorship shares, but when the [[United States Olympic Committee]] (USOC) executives learned of these promises, they were concerned about that all things that might impact on the "Atlanta 1996 Olympic Summer Games" brand and they turned an uncooperative factor about the Paralympic Games. The USOC understood that any move by the [[United States Paralympic Committee]] (USPC) could affect the USOC brand and their stakeholders. The [[US Department of Justice]] was sued by the USOC over the Paralympic Games mascot, the phoenix Blaze. Fleming also said the deal was the trap worked perfectly and required them to approach only corporate sponsors who had already signed an Olympics sponsorship agreement. When one Olympic sponsor declined, the Paralympics organizers could only request a competitor with the withdrawing company's permission. As main example, Fleming said that [[McDonald's]] refused to buy a sponsorship quota or act as a partner in a supplier area and the Paralympic catering services, and if any direct competing company wanted to buy it, APOC would have to ask permission for the withdrawing company to sign the contract. It "would not let them solicit [[Chick-fil-A]], even though [[Dan Cathy]], one of its main executives, had a chair at the organizing committee". Upon realizing she and all of the Paralympic Organizing Committee were being ambushed, Alana Shepherd 
abruptly broken unilaterally all previously signed contracts, taking the personal risk on this issue and through a press conference and released a list she dubbed the "Sinful Six", as their name were handwritten by her on a piece of paper. This nicknames was given, because along with McDonald's another five Olympic Sponsors did not signed a contract to the Paralympics and blocked eventual negotiations with their direct competitors. On this list were this names: [[Anheuser-Busch]], [[Visa Inc.|Visa]], [[Bausch and Lomb]], [[John Hancock Financial]] and [[Sara Lee Corporation|Sara Lee]]. "I keep the list in my wallet," Shepherd told a reporter at the time. In recent interviews, Shepherd declines to say much about this situation and the deal. "I'm taking the high road now… I'm not digging it up," she said, but added, "They were the losers. We were the winners." She also attended the [[1992 Summer Olympics]] and the [[1992 Summer Paralympics]] in Barcelona, Spain, and in a stroke of fate happened to have [[Juan Antonio Samaranch]], the then president of the International Olympic Committee, sitting next to her and in an informal talking she said. "You know, it's crazy to have two different committees holding events at the same places," she recalled. "They didn't understand it, they were scared of it," she said of Olympics officials' attitude toward the Paralympics. "It was something they didn't understand would help the city become more accessible."<ref>{{cite web |title=How Buckhead's Shepherd Center saved the Atlanta 1996 Paralympic Games|publisher= Reporter Newspapers |date=August 3, 2019 |url=https://reporternewspapers.net/2019/08/03/how-buckheads-shepherd-center-saved-the-atlanta-1996-paralympic-games/|access-date=2022-05-16 }}</ref><ref name="Atlanta History Center"/>

All of these issues were a concern for the IPC since the beginning of the application process and exemple of this concerns were reported during the entity's General Assembly held in November 1995 in Tokyo, Japan.<ref>{{cite web|title=Minutes of the fifth General Assembly|publisher=International Paralympic Committee |year=1995|url=http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/paad/ipc/secretariat/ga-95-minutes.html|access-date=11 December 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970727095354/http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/paad/ipc/secretariat/ga-95-minutes.html|archive-date=27 July 1997|url-status=live}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

Racing against time and all risks, Shepard raised the USD$81 million needed to hold the event. Without the involvement of any public authority, Atlanta successfully held the IX edition of the Summer Paralympic Games. But unlike what had happened four years earlier, not all Olympic Games competition venues were used and the same Barcelona experience could not be delivered. But, contrary to predictions, the event made an impressive profit of millions of dollars, and that amount was used to create [[BlazeSports America]], a [[Norcross, Georgia|Norcross]]-based non-profit organization that runs sports programs for children and veterans with disabilities.