In 1948, Sir Ludwig Guttman organised a sports competition involving World War II veterans with spinal cord injuries in Stoke Mandeville. The Stoke Mandeville Hospital was using sport as part of a rehabilitation programme offered to patients. This competition coincided with the London Olympic Games and over the next decade, the rehabilitation programme developed by Sir Ludwig Guttman was adopted by other spinal injury units in Britain and competition grew.
In 1960, the Olympic Games were held in Rome, and Guttman brought 400 athletes to the Olympic City to compete. This was the beginning of the modern Parallel Olympics or Paralympics as the competition is now known.
In 1964, the Olympic Games were held in Tokyo and shortly afterwards the Japanese capital hosted the Paralympic Games. The Games in Japan saw the introduction of wheelchair racing. In 1968 the Olympic Games were held in Mexico while the Paralympic Games were held in Israel, and in 1970 the Olympics Games were held in Munich with the Paralympic Games in Heidelberg. In Heidelberg there were 1000 athletes from 44 countries competing and athletes with quadriplegic spinal injuries competed for the first time, and athletes with visual impairments took part in demonstration events.
Athletes with visual impairments took part took a full part in medal events in Toronto in 1976 and there were debut events for amputees and ‘les autres’ which boosted the number of competitors to 1600. In 1980, athletes with cerebral palsy competed for the first time.
In 1984 Britain and the United States joined forces with events being held at Stoke Mandeville and in New York. In this year, the wheelchair marathon race was added to the competition for the first time.
The 1988 Paralympic Games marked a step forward in the Games being truly ‘parallel’ as they were staged on the same scale as the Olympic Games and it saw an unprecedented level of collaboration between the two organising committees. In 1992, the Barcelona Paralympic Games hosted 3,500 athletes who competed in front of a capacity crowd. However, this was not replicated in Atlanta in 1996 where there was little communication between the two organising committees and the athletes competed in almost empty venues.
The 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games was then hailed as the best Paralympics ever with 132 countries taking part, packed stadiums and unprecedented media coverage. At the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, 136 countries took part and we now look towards Beijing as the hosts of the 2008 Paralympic Games, and onto London in 2012…
1960 Rome
- 400 Athletes, 23 Countries
1964 Tokyo
- 370 Athletes, 22 Countries
1968 Tel Aviv
- 750 Athletes, 29 Countries
1970 Heidelberg
- 1000 Athletes, 44 Countries
1976 Toronto
- 1600 Athletes, 42 Countries
1980 Arnhem
- 2000 Athletes, 42 Countries
1984 New York / Stoke Mandeville
- 1700 Athletes, 43 Countries
- 2300 Athletes, 45 Countries
1988 Seoul
- 3053 Athletes, 62 Countries
1992 Barcelona
- 3050 Athletes, 82 Countries
1996 Atlanta
- 3310 Athletes, 103 Countries
2000 Sydney
- 4500 Athletes, 132 Countries
- IOC & IPC signed an agreement to ensure the Paralympics are included in the Bid for the Games
- National Governing Bodies responsible for teams
2004 Athens
- 3806 Athletes, 136 Countries
