Paralympic origin
We are looking for the roots of this competition with the Paralympic Games in Paris next week.
What began as a rehabilitation effort for post -World War II veterans has become a world celebration of human achievement and provides a platform for athletes with disabilities to showcase their talent on the world stage.
The first official Paralympic games were held in Rome in 1960, but the event can be tracked beyond it. Their real origin lies in Stoke Mandeville, England, and with a man named Dr. Ludwig Gutman. Gutman was born and raised in Germany, but when the Nazis took power, he was persecuted as a Jew. He finally fled to Britain on the eve of World War II and arrived in Oxford in March 1939.
Gutman continued his career in the UK and is an expert on spinal cord injuries that he was investigating during the first few years of the war. In 1944, the British government urged Gotthman to open a spinal cord injury center at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. Here, the Paralympic foundation was set. What began as a sport for rehabilitation became a sport for fun, and by 1948, with the end of the war, Stoke-Domeville’s opening games were held.
The first version coincided with the opening ceremony of the 1948 London Olympics. Sixteen maids and injured women, all with a limited wheelchair, participated in a bow shooting competition. By 1952, the Dutch injured veterans joined and the Stoke Mandeville games were now international.
At the time of the Paralympic Games, in 1960, 400 athletes from 23 countries traveled to Rome to compete. These games have been held every four years. The first winter games in the Paralympic history were held in Sweden in 1976. Both events hold opening and closing events.
Since the summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea in 1988 and winter games in Albertville, France in 1992, Olympics and Paralympics have always been held in the same cities. With the start of Seoul, the Paralympics used the same Olympic facilities, meaning that athletes can compete against much larger audience.
Read more: The strangest sport in the Olympic history
In 1989, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) was established in Germany. The word “Paralympic” is taken from the Greek default “paragraph” (next to or next) and the word “Olympics”.
At this time, the Paralympics had previously expanded widely within the competition – as well as spinal cord injuries, they had grown to accommodate a wider range of disabilities, including visual and hearing and amputation disorders – but IPC has helped increase financial support and television coverage. This was evident by the Barcelona games in 1992, where the number of spectators in the Paralympics participated.
Since these games have been moved to the 21st century, their popularity is still growing. Millions of people participate in the Paralympic Games in person, and billions of others are watching around the world.
Dr. Ludwig Gutman, in his turn, received a knight from Queen Elizabeth II in 1960. He participated more than the Paralympic Games before he died of a heart attack in 1979.
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