In the opening ceremonies, patchy showers greeted the 14000 spectators packed into the Mitchel Park stadium for the 2pm start of the New York Games opening ceremony on 19 June.^[4] New York radio personality William B. Williams introduced everyone with a welcome speech.^[4] Entertainers such as Bill Buzzeo and the Dixie Ramblers, Richie Havens, The New Image Drum and Bugle Corps, the ARC Gospel Chorus and the Square Dance Extravaganza followed the introduction speech.^[4] At the closing ceremonies, Commander Archie Cameron, President of ICC officially closed the games with a short speech acknowledging the athletes and the next host city, Seoul, South Korea and was to be held in a conjunction with the 1988 Summer Olympics. The flag of the Games was lowered and American athletes carried the flag back to the honor stand where they handed over to the President of the Organizing Committee, Dr William T. Callahan and Cameron.^[4]

The mascot for the 1984 Paralympic Games was Dan D. Lion, which was designed by an art teacher Maryanne McGrath Higgins.^[5]

Competitors were divided into five disability-specific categories: amputee, cerebral palsy, visually impaired, wheelchair, and les autres (athletes with physical disabilities that had not been eligible to compete in previous Games). The wheelchair category was for those competitors who used a wheelchair due to a spinal cord disability. However some athletes in the amputee and cerebral palsy categories also competed in wheelchairs. Within the sport of athletics, a wheelchair marathon event was held for the first time. The trials for the two wheelchair events to be held at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games was held in conjunction with the New York Games. However, despite the long and established history of using "paralympic" terminology, in the United States the US Olympic Committee prohibited the Games organizers from using the term. The seventeen contested sports are listed below, along with the disability categories which competed in each.^[6]

• Archery – Cerebral palsy, wheelchair, and les autres
• Athletics – All
• Boccia – Cerebral palsy
• Cycling – Cerebral palsy
• Equestrian – Cerebral palsy
• Football 7-a-side – Cerebral palsy
• Goalball – Visually impaired
• Lawn bowls – Amputee and wheelchair
• Lifting – Amputee, cerebral palsy, wheelchair, and les autres
  • Powerlifting
  • Weightlifting
• Shooting – Amputee, cerebral palsy, wheelchair, and les autres
• Snooker – Wheelchair
• Swimming – All
• Table tennis – Amputee, cerebral palsy, wheelchair, and les autres
• Volleyball – Amputee and les autres
• Wheelchair basketball – Wheelchair and les autres
• Wheelchair fencing – Wheelchair
• Wrestling – Visually impaired

The host nations, Great Britain and the United States, are highlighted. Bahrain, China, Jordan, Trinidad and Tobago won their first ever medals, with Luxembourg winning a first ever gold.

Fifty-four delegations took part in the 1984 Paralympics. Bahrain, China, East Germany, Faroe Islands, Jordan, Liechtenstein, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela made their first appearances, India and Portugal returned to the Games after a 12-year absence.^[7]

Odeda Rosenthal, a professor of humanities at a local community college on Long Island and translator for the Austrian team highlighted a number of problems at the games in a series of articles.^[4] She highlighted a number of issues such as poor communication, administrative hiccups and even bus drivers not knowing the routes to scheduled events that even caused some teams to miss events completely.^[4] Rosenthal continues by slamming the work by the Police Chief claiming the Chief "took the opposite tack of anything that was suggested to sort out the mess".^[4] However, overall reports and the general impression given off by the games was a friendly atmosphere and volunteers trying their hardest under difficult conditions.^[4]

• 1984 Summer Olympics
• 1984 Winter Olympics
• 1984 Winter Paralympics

• International Paralympic Committee