Ludwig Guttmann And Paralympic Games

Today, July 3 marks the 122^nd Birthday of Sir Ludwig Guttmann who established the Stroke Mandeville Games, which now evolved as the Paralympic Games.

This Sporting event that was established by Sir Ludwig Guttmann, who was a German-British neurologist is for people with disabilities.

The word "Paralympic" derives from the Greek preposition "para" which means beside or alongside, and the word "Olympic". This word means that Paralympics are the parallel Games to the Olympics and illustrates how the two movements exist together.

At the request of the British Government, Dr. Ludwig Guttmann opened a spinal injuries centre at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Great Britain in 1944 which over the time became rehabilitation sport and then evolved to recreational sport and then to competitive sport.

The main purpose of this at that time was to encourage and assist the war veterans of World War II who had been injured and became disabled during War time.

On the day of the Opening Ceremony of the London 1948 Olympic Games on July 29, Dr. Guttmann organised the first competition for wheelchair athletes which he named the Stoke Mandeville Games. There were a total of 16 injured servicemen and women who took part in archery competition.

Later in the year 1952, Dutch ex-servicemen joined the Movement and the International Stoke Mandeville Games were founded thereafter.

The Stoke Mandeville Games which later became the Paralympic Games took place in Rome, Italy, in 1960 featuring 400 athletes from 23 countries for the first time in history. Since then the event have taken place every four years. In 1976, Sweden held the first Winter Games in Paralympics history.

On 22 September 1989, the International Paralympic Committee was founded as an international non-profit organisation in Dusseldorf, Germany. This committee in the succeeding years acted as the global governing body of the Paralympic Movement.

Over the years, India too took part in the Paralympic Games. It made its debut at the Summer Paralympics 1968. And then, competed for the second time in 1972.

Since then, India has been participating in every edition of the Summer Games. However, India has never participated in the Winter Paralympic Games.

India till the present date won a total of 12 medals in the Paralympic Games.

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