Paralympic Games: From Rehabilitation for War Wounded to a Celebration of Diversity
For the first time, the Olympic and Paralympic Games have a single logo. However, while the latest information on the subject indicates that each event will have its own opening and closing ceremonies, the Paralympic and Olympic movements seem more closely linked than ever.
Sylvain Ferez, University of Montpellier and Sébastien Ruffie, University of the Antilles
Yet this was far from obvious. The history of the Paralympic Games is complex, raising the question of how to define disability. Beginning as sporting events organized exclusively for people with spinal cord injuries who used wheelchairs (founded in 1948), the Games gradually began to include people with other types of disabilities starting in the 1970s.
The format chosen for this summer’s Paris competitions—featuring 22 parasports (the sports on the Paralympic Games program)—is the result of a long process that began on July 29, 1948, when theXIV Olympiad kicked off in London. On that date, neurosurgeon Ludwig Guttmann organized an archery competition at the nearby Stoke Mandeville Hospital among 16 World War II veterans with spinal cord injuries who were wheelchair users.
Of German origin, Guttmann was the inventor of rehabilitation methods based on sports games. Throughout the 1950s, his Stoke Games attracted an increasing number of participants and began to gain international recognition. Reserved for people with paralysis who used wheelchairs, they were held every summer on the hospital grounds. In 1952, the games welcomed a Dutch delegation, with five competitions on the program: archery, netball, javelin, table tennis, and billiards; swimming was featured in demonstration events. In 1953, participants from France, Australia, Canada, Finland, Israel, and South Africa joined the event.
These Stoke Games continue to be part of a rehabilitation initiative, and Guttmann is organizing an annual medical conference on this occasion to discuss advances in the treatment of spinal injuries.
Persistent Medical Logic
It was their relocation to Rome in 1960, in the wake of the Olympic Games, that would partially change the situation. While the sports aspect became more prominent, they remained rooted in the field of rehabilitation for patients with spinal injuries. This relocation was made possible thanks to the ties between Ludwig Guttmann and Antonio Maglio, an Italian colleague who had founded a rehabilitation center for paraplegics near the Italian capital. Four hundred athletes, all in wheelchairs and hailing from 23 countries, competed in eight disciplines. Benefiting from Olympic-level facilities, they left the hospital setting but remained under medical supervision. This was evident in the presence of government ministers who came to support the athletes. These “Paralympic Games” opened in the presence of the Italian Minister of Health but without the Minister of Sports. The same would be true four years later in Tokyo. Nevertheless, a momentum was set in motion at that time: it would lead to the creation of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) in 1989.
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The Paralympic Games refer to an event recognized by the IOC that involves athletes with various types of disabilities (who are, in fact, “capable in different ways”). The prefix “para” no longer means “for the paralyzed,” but rather “parallel” to the Olympic Games.
But before we get to that point, there will be many disputes to work through.
Competitive dynamics
In fact, in the 1960s, calls were made to open the sport to amputees and the blind, a move opposed by the Stoke Federation, which remained focused on wheelchair sports for people with spinal cord injuries. In 1964 in Tokyo, a “all-disabilities” sports meet was held on the sidelines of the Paralympic Games for non-paralyzed athletes. In 1968, the Paralympic Games were held in Tel Aviv and were still reserved exclusively for people with paralysis who used wheelchairs. However, little by little, the initial goal of rehabilitation gave way to the desire to align more closely with the Olympic competitive model and the image of the champion.
Although Guttmann opposes this competitive approach for all types of disabilities, the goal of athletes and certain national federations—including France’s—is moving inexorably toward distancing themselves from medical oversight in order to align more closely with the world of sports and its national and international governing bodies.
Gradual Convergence
The 1970s marked a turning point, as competitions gradually began to include athletes with new types of disabilities by categorizing them according to their abilities.
The goal is to enable their participation while ensuring equal opportunities and upholding the competitive nature of sports. Thus, the inclusion of new athletes with specific characteristics requires careful consideration of how to establish functional classifications based on their abilities and the impact those abilities have on their performance.
In 1972, at the Paralympic Games in Heidelberg (the Olympic Games were held in Munich), visually impaired athletes were allowed to participate in exhibition events in goalball and the 100-meter dash. At the same time, amputees entered the stadium to protest, as recalled by the late track and field coach Christian Paillard of the French Athletics Federation: “What do I see coming? Amputees with huge banners! They staged a sit-in on the track, saying, ‘We want to compete in the Games, too!’”
It would take another four years—until the 1976 Toronto Games—for athletes with amputations and visual impairments to be officially allowed to compete. Seeking greater visibility, each disability category established its own international federation, and in 1982, a committee (ICC) was created to coordinate them and build closer ties with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, wheelchair events were included in the program on a non-competitive basis, with the aim of promoting sports for people with disabilities. This first appearance of Paralympic sports at the Olympic Games angered amputees, who felt excluded. It raised the risk of a split within the movement.
Despite the crisis, the Paralympic Games went ahead in 1984, but were split into two: athletes in wheelchairs competed in New York, and all others in Stoke. In 1986, two international federations joined the movement: the federation for deaf athletes and the federation for athletes with intellectual disabilities.
More than two decades after Tokyo (1964), the Seoul Games (1988) provided an opportunity to once again hold the Olympic and Paralympic Games at the same venue—something that hadn't happened since 1964.
In 1989, the creation of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) completed the alignment with the Olympic movement and paved the way for a single event organized in partnership with the IOC: the Olympic and Paralympic Games (OPG) would henceforth be held at the same venue. This requirement was not actually enforced until 1996 in Atlanta; the 1992 Paralympic Games were held in both Barcelona (for athletes with physical disabilities) and Madrid (for athletes with intellectual disabilities), while the Olympic Games took place in Barcelona.
A desire to play like everyone else
However, the integration process is not yet complete and remains a source of tension. In 1995, the federation of deaf athletes decided to withdraw, opting instead for competitions among deaf people who wish to affirm their unique culture, or—for the most accomplished athletes—participation in the Olympic Games. Deaf athletes have, in fact, never participated in the Paralympic Games.
At the same time, although athletes with intellectual disabilities competed in the Paralympic Games for the first time in 1992, their participation was not without its problems. During the basketball tournament in Sydney (2000), it turned out that several players on the Spanish team that won the tournament did not, in fact, have a cognitive disability. The gold medal was returned, and, unsure of how to ensure a reliable selection process for these athletes, the IPC suspended their participation. It wasn’t until London (2012) that they were reinstated.
The desire to practice “like everyone else” creates a unifying force that gradually leads to a break with the medical world. Paradoxically, the aspiration to conform to the norm compels us to devise tailored challenges in which each person can showcase their abilities.
Sylvain Ferez, Associate Professor (HDR), Sociology, University of Montpellier and Sébastien Ruffie, Professor of Social Sciences, University of the Antilles
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