History of Disability Sport

About disability sport

Disability sport is played by people with physical and intellectual disabilities or sensory impairments. Some of these sports are based on existing sports – adapted to meet the needs to the people playing. As a result they are sometimes also known as adapted sports. However, many sports played by disabled people are not adapted but variants of able-bodied sports. There are some sports which have no able bodied equivalents – like the Paralympic sport of Boccia.

A short history of disability sport

Organized sport for athletes with a disability is generally divided into three broad disability groups:

• Deaf people;
• People with physical disabilities; and
• People with intellectual disabilities.

Each group has its own history, organisation and approach. What follows are some highlights in the development of disability sport:

The roaring 20’s

1924 saw the first deaf sport event known as the ‘Paris Silent Games’ organised by the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (CISS). These games evolved into the modern Deaflympics, governed by the CISS.

WWII

Following the carnage of the Second World War sport for disabled people developed out of rehabilitation programs. Perhaps inevitably, sport for rehabilitation grew into recreational sport and then into competitive sport.

The pioneer of this approach was Sir Ludwig Guttmann of the Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England. In 1948, while the Olympic Games were being held in London, he organized a sports competition for wheelchair athletes at Stoke Mandeville. This was the origin of the Stoke Mandeville Games, which evolved into the modern-day Paralympic Games.

Currently, Paralympic sport is governed by the International Paralympic Committee, in conjunction with a wide range of other international sport organizations.

Swinging sixties

The 60’s saw sport for people with intellectual disabilities began to be organized through the Special Olympics movement.

This grew out of a series of summer camps organized by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, beginning in 1962. In 1968 the first international Special Olympics were held, in Chicago. Today, Special Olympics provide training and competition in a variety of sports for persons with intellectual disabilities.

The 80’s

In 1986, the International Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability (INAS-FID) was formed to support elite competition for athletes with intellectual disabilities. This was established in contrast to the more participative, "sport for all" approach of Special Olympics.

For a time, athletes with intellectual disabilities were included in the Paralympic Games. After a cheating scandal at the 2000 Summer Paralympics, where a number of athletes participating in intellectual disability events were revealed to not be disabled, INAS-FID athletes were banned from Paralympic competition. Work is on-going to reintegrate these athletes into the Paralympic movement.

So what sports are there for me?

Parasport provides information on the 23 sports presently forming part of the Paralympic movement. However there are simply hundreds of other sports that disabled people can participate in.

What follows is an incomplete (but growing list) of sports available to you:

Deaf sports	Paralympic sports	Special Olympics	Other Sports
Alpine skiing Athletics Badminton Basketball Beach volleyball Bowling Cross-country skiing Curling Cycling Football Handball Ice hockey Judo Karate Orienteering Shooting Snowboard Swimming Table tennis Tae kwon do Tennis Volleyball Water polo Wrestling	Archery Alpine Skiing Athletics Adapted Rowing Boccia Cycling Equestrian Football - CP & VI Handcycling Goalball Ice Sledge Hockey Judo Nordic Skiing Powerlifting Sailing Shooting Sitting Volleyball Swimming Table Tennis Wheelchair Basketball Wheelchair Curling Wheelchair Fencing Wheelchair Rugby Wheelchair Tennis	Alpine skiing Aquatics Athletics Badminton Basketball Bocce Bowling Cross-country skiing Cycling Equestrian Figure skating Floor hockey Football Golf Gymnastics Powerlifting Roller skating Sailing Snowboarding Snowshoeing Softball Speed skating Table tennis Team handball Tennis Volleyball	Blind cricket Blind golf Electric wheelchair football Electric wheelchair hockey Golf   Wheelchair baseball Wheelchair hockey Wheelchair skateboarding