On the 29th July 1948, the day the Olympic Games opened in London, Dr Ludwig Guttmann staged the Stoke Mandeville Games, on the hospital grounds. Two teams of former servicemen and women competed in wheelchair archery as part of their rehabilitation programme. Little did Guttmann know the history that would follow and that this first competition would form the birth of the Paralympic Games as we know them today.
Read our article about the history of two founding organisations of the Paralympic Games, World Abilitysport and WheelPower.
If you have any stories to contribute, please fill out this form.
On 29th July 1948, Guttmann organised an archery demonstration to coincide with the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games. Read more
Attended by a growing number of national teams from other countries, the International Games took place in late summer. Read more
In Rome 1960 the International Games were held for the first time in the Olympics venue immediately after the Olympic Games. They are now seen as the first “Paralympic Games” Read more
At the 1976 Toronto Games athletes who were blind or partially sighted and amputees were combined with wheelchair based athletes for the first time. Read more
Professor Sir Ludwig Guttmann passed away in 1980 and relations improved between the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation and the International Olympic Committee. Read more
The newly established IPC took over the responsibility of co-ordinating the Paralympic Games and thereafter were twinned with their Olympic counterparts. Read more
The 2008 Paralympics at Beijing were famously described by the Chinese as 'a Games of equal splendour'. Read more
The parity between the Olympics and Paralympics at London 2012 surpassed all other games. Read more
2020(21) saw the Paralympic Games return to Tokyo in Japan for the second time since 1964. Read more