The Paralympic Games: from rehabilitating war veterans, to high-performance sport
From its beginnings in England, movement went global, challenging preconceptions and producing amazing athletes
The London 2012 Paralympic Games were described as the ‘best in history’ (Getty Images/Buda Mendes)
Text: Denise Mirás
The Rio 2016 Paralympic Games will take place 128 years after the first sport for people with a disability was organised – clubs for deaf people had been existence in Berlin in 1888. However, the roots of what would become the Paralympic Movement were laid by a Jewish German doctor, Lugwig Guttmann, in England during World War II.
From the first Paralympic Games (in Rome in 1960) until today, the event has grown phenomenally, with the inclusion of many new sports, different types of physical conditions and levels of impairment. In recent decades, technology has been the catalyst for great evolutions.
Today, para-athletes test equipment that will be used by wider society, such a high-tech prostheses, in a similar fashion to how Formula One develops motor car technology. At the London 2012 Games, performances and public engagement exceeded expectations, overturning preconceptions, thrilling mass audiences and showing that Paralympic sports was now, without a doubt, high-perfornmance sport.
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With six months until the start of the Rio 2016 Games, we look back at the history of the Paralympic Movement.
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1888 – Berlin in the vanguard
In the German capital, clubs promote the integration of people with impaired hearing through sport.
1944 – Rehabilitation of war veterans
The British government employs Dr Lugwig Guttmann to work with injured soldiers returning from World War II.
1948 – Archery paves the way
On the day of the opening ceremony of the London 1948 Olympic Games, Guttmann organises the first competition for wheelchair athletes, which he called the Stoke Mandeville Games. Archery is the sport and the competition involves 16 injured servicemen and women.
1952 – Dutch join in
War veterans from the Netherlands participate in the next edition of the Stoke Mandeville Games, making it an international event.
1960 – The first Paralympic Games
Rome hosts the first edtion, with 400 athletes from 23 countries. From here, the Games are staged every four years.
1964 – More types of impairments are embraced
The International Sport Organisation for the Disabled (IOSD) is created, offering opportunities to athletes who have not yet been able to take part in the International Stoke Mandeville Games: visually impaired, amputees, people with cerebral palsy and paraplegics.
1976 – Hit the slopes
Örnsköldsvik in Sweden hosts the first edition of the Paralympic Winter Games, with 250 visually impaired and amputee athletes from 16 countries competing in Nordic and Alpine skiing.
Stephanie Jallenby of the USA competes in the giant slalom at the Sochi 2014 Games (Photo: Getty Images/Tom Pennington)
1982 – Joining forces
The ISOD forms an alliance with the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation (ISMGF), Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CPISRA) and International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA), creating the International Co-coordinating Committee Sports for the Disabled in the World (ICC), whose aim is to organise the Paralympic Games.
1986 – Growing stronger
The International Committee of Sport for the Deaf (CISS) and International Sports Federations for Persons with an Intellectual Disability (INAS-FID) join the ICC.
Australia and Canada battle in the London 2012 wheelchair rugby final (Photo: Getty Images/Mike Ehrmann)
1988 – Parallel Games
For the first time, the Paralympic Games are staged in the same city as the Olympic Games – Seoul in the Korean Republic. The same thing happens in the next edition of the Winter Games, in the French town of Albertville 1992.
1989 – Founding of the IPC
The International Paralympic Committee is founded as an international non-profit organisation in Dusseldorf, Germany to act as the global governing body of the Paralympic Movement.
2000 – Aussie spirit
In a society well organised for people with an impairment, Sydney develops further the Paralympic Games – even selling a wheelchair using Barbie doll in their official shops.
2012 – Best Games yet
A Belgian athlete and her guide dog parade at the London 2012 opening ceremony (Photos: Getty Images/Dan Kitwood)
IPC President Sir Philip Craven declares the London 2012 Games the best ever, with record attendances and international broadcasting figures: 2.76 million tickets are sold and Channel 4’s innovative approach sets the benchmark for future broadcasts.
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