Archers at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, 21 August 1948
The Paralympic Games started after Sir Ludwig Guttmann changed how spinal cord injuries were rehabilitated.
How did Rehabilitation inspire the Paralympic Games?
The Paralympic Games were inspired by Sir Ludwig Guttmann who was a neurologist from Germany who changed the way spinal cord injuries were rehabilitated. In the 1940’s, patients with spinal cord injuries were bedridden and the survival rates were low. Guttmann changed the approach to rehabilitation for spinal cord injuries by getting patients to move more. Movement significantly improved survival rates, inspiring Guttman to help patients reintegrate into society. He decided to incorporate wheelchair sports into the hospital’s rehabilitation program, which eventually led to the International Stroke Mandeville Games.
The International Stroke Mandeville Games were hosted every year and each year, more countries brought athletes who were paraplegic from hospitals and rehabilitation centers to compete. In 1960, the first Paralympic Games took place in Rome, which would have been the ninth International Stroke Mandeville Games. The Games took place after the closing ceremony of the Olympics and went on for 6 days. There were 400 athletes from 23 countries who came to compete in 8 events.
How did the Paralympic Games change over time?
As time progressed, the Paralympic Games continued to host more games and athletes. By 1972, there were 984 athletes from 43 countries. Further, individuals with amputations began campaigning for the right to participate and subcommittees were created for each sport within the organizing committee to enhance independence and disability classification.
The Games expanded to include athletes with amputations and visual impairments by 1976, which is also the year that the first winter Paralympic games also occurred. By the 1980s, individuals with cerebral palsy were included in the games, sport-specific wheelchairs were introduced, the disability classification system was further developed, and the International Paralympic Committee was founded. In the 1990s, athletes with intellectual impairments began competing against athletes with physical and visual impairments.
Unfortunately, in 2000, athletes with intellectual disabilities were then excluded from the Paralympic Games after it was discovered that athletes on Spain’s wheelchair basketball team were pretending to have intellectual disabilities. It was not until 2008 that athletes with intellectual impairments were reintroduced into the Paralympic Games after the system for classifying disabilities was reformed. The media coverage in the 2000s was also increasing and by 2016, the games were broadcasted to over 154 countries.
When did the Olympic and Paralympic games become more intertwined?
In 2001, it became mandated that the host city would have to organize both the Olympics and Paralympics using the same venues, facilities, and villages. Further, entry fees and travel costs had to be covered the same for Olympic and Paralympic athletes. By 2004, the Olympic and Paralympic Games had a shared organizing committee.
References
Bush, E. (2020). A Sporting Chance: How Ludwig Guttmann Created the Paralympic Games by Lori Alexander (review). Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, 73(8), 337–337. https://doi.org/10.1353/bcc.2020.0230
Olympics. (2024). The History of the Paralympic Games. https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/the-games/olympic-paralympic-games/history-paralympic-games
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