Paralympics breaking records before they start
For people who love the Olympics, the closing ceremony is a bittersweet affair. Sure, it’s nice to celebrate a successful Games, but the closing ceremony tells us that it’s all over, that we have to wait another four years before we get to enjoy any more recordbreaking performances.
Fortunately, though, that’s not quite true. For while the Olympics are over, the Games continue — specifically the Paralympic Games, which have become something of a phenomenon in their own right and which also treat us to many record- breaking performances.
And when it comes to the London Paralympics, the records have already started to fall, even though the Games don’t begin until Aug. 29. For example, a record 2.1 million tickets have already been sold for the Games, a full 300,000 more than the previous record of 1.8 million, set at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games.
Athletes are also breaking records in advance of the competition, as a record 4,200 athletes from 166 countries are set to compete in London. That’s significantly more than the previous record of 3,951 athletes from 146 countries, again set in Beijing.
Such success is something Ludwig Guttmann could only have dreamed of. The British- German neurologist established the National Spinal Injuries Centre in Stoke Mandeville, England in 1944, and, aware of the importance of exercise in rehabilitating spinal cord injuries, Guttmann decided sports were just the thing to motivate patients to get the exercise they needed.
He therefore made sports a mandatory part of his patients’ therapy, and on July 28, 1948 held the first Stoke Mandeville Games for the Paralysed — not coincidentally, the same day as the start of the Olympic Games. The Games were a success right from the start, and in 1952 they became international with the participation of athletes from the Netherlands.
Guttmann’s choice of date for the Games revealed his desire for his Games to be treated on a par with the Olympics. Indeed, Guttmann wished to incorporate his Games with the Olympics, and his wish was largely fulfilled at the 1960 Rome Olympics, as about 400 disabled athletes from 23 countries participated in Rome right after the Olympics.
The Paralympics continued to grow, and in 1976, the first Winter Paralympics were held in Sweden and included for the first time athletes from different disability groups, rather than just those using wheelchairs.
And as we have seen, things have grown exponentially from there, to the point where thousands of athletes compete in front of millions of spectators. So what began as a form of therapy for people with spinal cord injuries has now become a major sporting event — in fact, one of the largest athletic competitions in the world.
This doesn’t mean that the Paralympics need lose sight of its roots. As in Ludwig Guttmann’s day, exercise is an important part of rehabilitation, and sports provide many people with the motivation to exercise. So if the Paralympics motivate people to help themselves, then so much the better.
But clearly, the Paralympics are now much more than that. Indeed, they have truly become what their name suggests — something beside ( rather than beneath) and on equal footing with — the Olympic Games, which is precisely what Ludwig Guttmann desired.