The modern Paralympic Games can trace their roots to the 1948 Stoke-Mandeville Games. The Anglo-German Dr. Ludwig Guttman created them after spending time treating people, many of whom were veterans of war, with spinal injuries.
Most participants at the start were wheelchair-bound, but as the games became international, they diversified and were renamed the Paralympic Games, much to the happiness of the now elderly Guttman, who had long dreamt of an international competition for the disabled.
(Photo: The first Stoke-Mandeville Games (Aylesbury, UK, 1948). The contestant on the far right is Robin Isray. Due to faulty OCR the other two are not identified. The helpers, who retrieved the arrows, are the light music trio The Beverley Sisters.)
More about the history of the Paralympics
