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A Historical Perspective of the Paralympic Games

Karen P. DePauw

Graduate Education, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24060

Published online: 26 Jan 2013.

To cite this article: Karen P. DePauw (2012): A Historical Perspective of the Paralympic Games, Journal of Physical
Education, Recreation & Dance, 83:3, 21-31
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Implementing Paralympic Sports in the General Physical Education CurriculumPart 1

A Historical Perspective
of the Paralympic Games
Karen P. DePauw

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thletes with disabilities are more visible in the 21st century than they used
to be, including in the world of sport. Today, we hear about the Paralympic
Games, can find media coverage of them, can read about athletes who
compete in the Paralympics and about advancements in sport prosthetic
devices in science and sport magazines, and can even see announcements and
advertisements from the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) that include
photos of Paralympians as well as Olympians. Although visibility has increased,
the efforts to advance adapted sports must continue.
Before the 1940s, adapted sport opportunities were available primarily for deaf
athletes and amputees. Deaf athletes could participate in sport through deaf sport
clubs, the national deaf sport federations, the International Committee of Sports
for the Deaf (CISS, founded in 1924), and world competitions such as the World
Games of the Deaf, now known as the Deaflympics. Amputee athletes could participate through sport clubs, primarily at the local level, such as the British Society
of One-Armed Golfers founded in 1932. This and other such sport clubs helped set
the stage for further development of disability sport after World War II.
In 1944, the British government opened the Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke
Mandeville Hospital in Salisbury, England. Sir Ludwig Guttmann, director of this
center, first introduced competitive sports (e.g., punch ball exercises, rope climbing,
wheelchair polo) as an integral part of the rehabilitation of disabled veterans (Guttmann, 1976). He organized the First Stoke Mandeville Games for the Paralyzed in
1948 for 26 British veterans (including 3 women) who competed in archery. In 1952,
Guttmann organized the first international competition for wheelchair athletes,
which was held at Stoke Mandeville. Two teams (Britain and Netherlands) comprising 130 athletes with spinal cord injuries competed in six wheelchair sports.
Since the early days of the Stoke Mandeville Games, wheelchair sports expanded
beyond wheelchair archery to include lawn bowling, table tennis, shot put, javelin,
and club throw. By the 1960s, wheelchair basketball, fencing, snooker, swimming,
and weight lifting had been added to the list of wheelchair sports.
The International Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Sports Federation (ISMWSF)
was formed to sanction international competitions for individuals with spinal cord
injuries, but those games were expanded in 1976 to include other athletes with
physical and visual impairments.
During the 1960s, international sport competitions were expanded to include
individuals with disabilities who were not eligible for the International Stoke
Mandeville Games. The leadership for these additional disability sport competitions came in the form of the International Sports Organization for the Disabled
(ISOD). In Paris in 1964, the ISOD was officially formed to provide international
sport opportunities for the blind, amputees, and persons with other locomotor disabilities. Its founders intended the ISOD to become an entity parallel in structure
and functions to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
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In part due to dissatisfaction with existing competitions,

the International Cerebral Palsy Society (ICPS) was founded
in 1968 to sponsor the first international games for individuals with cerebral palsy in France. The ICPS help this competition every two years until 1978, when the Cerebral Palsy
International Sports and Recreation Association (CPISRA)
became recognized by ISOD as the official sanctioning body
for cerebral palsy sports. In a similar manner, the International Blind Sports Association (IBSA) was formed in 1981
in response to increasing interest and expanding competition opportunities for athletes with visual impairments and
blindness, and it was recognized by ISOD.
A shared interest in expanding sport opportunities at
the international level for athletes with disabilities brought
CPISRA, IBSA, ISMWSF, and ISOD together in 1982 to form
a new umbrella organization. The International Coordinating Committee of the World Sports Organizations (ICC)
was formed to coordinate disability sport worldwide and to

negotiate with the IOC on behalf of athletes with disabilities.

The CISS (Deaf sports) and International Federation for Sports
for Persons with Mental Handicap (INAS-FMH) joined the
ICC in 1986. Although the Special Olympics existed at the
time, it was perceived primarily as a U.S.-based organization
for individuals with mental retardation or intellectual disabilities and was therefore not considered for membership
in the ICC.
Because the ICC served as a fragile alliance of international sport federations and experienced an uneasy history
from 1982 to 1987, representatives of 39 countries and from
the six international federations (CPISRA, IBSA, ISMWSF,
ISOD, CISS and INAS-FMH) met to determine the future of
international disability sport. This meeting, known as the
Arnhem Seminar, was held on March 14, 1987, in Arnhem,
Netherlands. As specified during the Arnhem Seminar, the
new organization was to govern itself through a council of
Continues on page 31

Table 1. Chronology of the Paralympics (19602012)

Year

Locations

Athletes

1960
1964
1968

Rome, Italy
Tokyo, Japan
Tel Aviv, Israel

1972

Heidelberg, Germany

spinal cord injury

spinal cord injury
spinal cord injury
spinal cord injury, visual impairment demonstration events
spinal cord injury, amputees,
blind

1976
1980
1984
1988
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018

Toronto, Canada
Ornskoldvik, Sweden (W)
Arnheim, Netherlands
Geilo, Norway (W)
Aylesbury, United Kingdom
New York, United States
Innsbruck, Austria (W)
Seoul, South Korea
Calgary, Canada (W)
Barcelona, Spain
Albertville, France (W)
Lillehammer, Norway (W)
Atlanta, United States
Nagano, Japan (W)
Sydney, Australia
Salt Lake City, United
States (W)
Athens, Greece
Torino, Italy (W)
Beijing, China
Vancouver, Canada (W)
London, United Kingdom
Sochi, Russia (W)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Pyeongchange, South
Korea (W)

Countries

Sports

23
19
28

8
9
10

41

11

physical and visual impairments

physical and visual impairments
physical and visual impairments
physical and visual impairments

40
16
42
16
41
45
22
61
22
82
24
31
104
32
127

13
2
12
2
10
15
2
16
4
15
3
5
20
4
20

physical and visual impairments

36

physical and visual impairments

physical and visual impairments
physical and visual impairments
physical and visual impairments
physical & visual impairments

136
39
148
44
150

19
4
20
5
19

spinal cord injury, amputees,

blind, cerebral palsy
spinal cord injury, amputee,
blind, les autres (i.e., the others), cerebral palsy
spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy,
amputee, blind, les autres
physical and visual impairments

(W) = Winter
Adapted from DePauw & Gavron (2005) and International Paralympic Committee (2012).

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and adults with physical and visual disabilities in sports and

physical activity.
6. Transition to the CommunityDevelop high-quality
relationships between schools and community programs to
help all individuals continue to take part in disability sports
outside of school hours through the U.S. Paralympics Sports
Club program.
Physical education programs are a great way to introduce
disability sports that are associated with the U.S. Paralympics. Offering students with disabilities the experience to
participate in a wide variety of alternative sports would be
a welcomed change to the GPE program (Davis, 2011). Putting disability sport into a GPE program also lends itself to
increased disability awareness, creating an atmosphere for
increased socialization and positive perceptions of various
disabilities. Presenting alternative sports like Bocce, sitting
volleyball, and wheelchair sport activities allows students to
enjoy and share equally in relationships with peers, which
ultimately enhances friendships, teamwork, and the opportunity for leadership experiences (Lieberman, & HoustonWilson, 2009).
Having an opportunity to participate in U.S. Paralympic
sports in schools and in the community can lead students
with disabilities to further aspire to athletic competition,
thereby promoting the chances of finding the next generation of Paralympians. In summation, participating in U.S.
Paralympic sport activities, whether offered in physical
education or as a disability sport after school, can change
the lives of students with disabilities.

References
Davis, R. (2011). Teaching disability sport (2nd ed.). Champaign, IL:
Human Kinetics.
DePauw, K. P., & Gavron S. J. (2005). Disability sports (2nd ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Lakowski, T. (2009). Athletes with disabilities in team sports: A critical
assessment of the state of sports opportunity for students with disabilities. Boston University International Law Journal, 27, 278-311.
Lavay, B., & Semark. C. (2001). Everyone plays, including special needs
children in youth sports programs. Palaestra, 17(4), 40-44.
Lieberman, L. J., & Houston-Wilson, C. (2009). Strategies for inclusion:
A handbook for physical educators (2nd ed.). Champaign, IL: Human
Kinetics.
U.S. Department of Education. (2011). Creating equal opportunities for
children and youth with disabilities to participate in physical education
and extracurricular athletics. Retrieved January 24, 2012, from http://
www.wrightslaw.com/pubs/usdoe.pe.athletics.pdf.
U. S. Government Accountability Office. (2010). Students with disabilities:
More information and guidance could improve opportunities in physical
education and athletics. Retrieved January 24, 2012, from www.gao.
gov/assets/310/305770.pdf.

DePauw
Continued from page 22

nations and to incorporate the voice of the athletes and disability sport organizations into the governance structure.
On September 21 and 22, 1989, in Dsseldorf, Germany,
the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) was born.
At this meeting, officers were elected and the governance
structure was adopted, along with a draft of the constitution.
The IPC began a significant chapter in the history of sport
and disability. Its initial efforts were devoted to streamlining
operations, coordinating international sport, and securing
communication between the IPC and IOC.
Since the 1992 Paralympic Games in Barcelona were held
under the auspices of the ICC, the official transfer of power
from the ICC to the IPC was set to occur at the conclusion
of those games. Since then, the IPC has been recognized as
the sole international coordinating entity for athletes with
disabilities. The IPC headquarters was officially opened on
September 3, 1999, in Bonn, Germany.
In recognition of the developing relationship between the
IOC and the IPC, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch
presented IPC President Robert Steadward with a sculpture
depicting a wheelchair athlete in motion, which is now
prominently displayed at IPC headquarters. In 2000, IPC
President Steadward became a member of the International
Olympic Committee, followed by the election of Phil Craven,
current IPC president, as the 123rd member of the IOC. The
practice of holding the Paralympic Games shortly after the
Olympic Games in the same host city has been in effect since
1988. The practice became more formalized in 2008, when
the official bid process for hosting the Olympic Games was
changed to include the hosting of the Paralympic Games.
The Paralympic Games have grown in size and scope since
the early days in Rome in 1960. As seen in Table 1, the number of participating countries has increased from 23 to more
than 150. Accordingly, the number of sports and competitive
events for athletes with a disability has increased for both
the summer and winter games. As Bailey (2007) wrote in his
book detailing the rich history of the Paralympic movement,
the Paralympic Games are now the biggest global sporting
phenomenon for athletes with a disability (p. xvii).

References
Bailey, S. (2007). Athlete first: A history of the Paralympic movement.
London: Wiley.
DePauw, K. P., & Gavron, S. J. (2005). Disability sport. Champaign, IL:
Human Kinetics.
Guttmann, L. (1976). Textbook of sport for the disabled. Oxford, England:
H. M. & M.
International Paralympic Committee. (2012). Paralympic games.
Retrieved January 23, 2012, from http://www.paralympic.org/
Paralympic_Games/.

Rocco Aiello (raaiello@smcps.org) is a coordinator of adapted

physical education and corollary sports for St. Marys County Public
Schools in Maryland.
JOPERD Volume 83 No. 3 March 2012

Karen P. DePauw (kpdepauw@vt.edu) is vice president and dean for

graduate education at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, VA 24060.

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