In 1944, at the request of the British Government, Dr. Ludwig Guttmann opened a spinal injuries centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Great Britain.
On Tuesday, 24 February at 9:45 am, the Paralympic Flame will be lit in Stoke Mandeville, Aylesbury, which is considered the birthplace of the Paralympic Movement thanks to the pioneering work of neurosurgeon Sir Ludwig Guttmann.
What began as a form of rehabilitation through sport gradually developed into recreational and then competitive sport. On 29 July 1948, the same day as the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympic Games, Dr. Guttmann organised the first Stoke Mandeville Games for wheelchair athletes. Sixteen injured servicemen and women competed in archery, marking an important milestone in Paralympic history.
The Stoke Mandeville Games eventually grew into the first official Paralympic Games, held in Rome in 1960 with 400 athletes from 23 countries. Since then, the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games have taken place every four years, with the Winter Games first held in Sweden in 1976. Over time, international organisations were created to support athletes with various impairments, leading to the formation of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) on 22 September 1989 in Düsseldorf, Germany. The word “Paralympic,” meaning “parallel to the Olympics,” reflects how the Paralympic and Olympic Movements exist side-by-side.
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