A heart of gold
As the Paralympics get underway in Tokyo, MARION McMULLEN looks at the pioneering doctor hailed as the father of the Games
THE brainchild of Dr Ludwig Guttman, what we now know as the Paralympic Games, began as a way to help with the rehab of men and women disabled by the Second World War.
Ludwig “Poppa” Guttmann was a spinal injury expert at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury and was determined to help get his patients physically active.
He invented a three-wheeled polo game that paved the way for the present-day contest. His Stoke Mandeville Games began modestly in 1948 and involved just 16 paralysed Second World War veterans. They took part in a wheelchair archery contest that was held on the day of the opening ceremony of the London Olympics on July 29.
Dr Guttmann spearheaded his opportunities in physical activity for disabled people after he escaped to the UK from Nazi Germany. He had already helped to save the lives of 60 people who came to his hospital in Germany to seek refuge from Kristallnacht – the Night Of Broken Glass – which saw horrific attacks on the Jewish community.
The German-Jewish neurologist became a naturalised UK citizen in 1945 and founded the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. He lived to see his sporting ideas prove an international inspiration.
International Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons said: “When Sir Ludwig Guttmann started this movement 70-something years ago it was not only to be a high-performance event, it was for a higher purpose.”
By 1960, Guttmann’s tournament was attracting sports people from all over the world and he was knighted for his work in 1966. One of Britain’s first Paralympic champions at the 1960 Games in Rome was Margaret Maughan, who has been described as a “legend” of the movement.
She won gold medals in both archery and swimming in Rome – less than a year after she had been paralysed from the waist down in a car accident. Margaret went on to compete in four more Paralympic Games, winning gold in lawn bowls in 1980. She also lit the flame at the London 2012 Games and said then “I feel very proud to be at the start of all this. From just a team of 70 British people in wheelchairs at the first Games, now there are hundreds from all disabilities.”
British Paralympic Association chairman Nick Webborn paid tribute to her when she passed away last year at the age of 91, saying “the fact that lived until the age of 91 is testament to the work of Sir Ludwig who transformed the care of people with spinal cord injury, and that through sport, people with disabilities can enjoy rich and fulfilling lives.”
There have been many inspiring sports heroes over the years. Tanni Grey-Thompson is arguably Britain’s most famous Paralympian.
Now Baroness Grey-Thompson, Tanni, who has spina bifida, competed as a wheelchair racer in five Games between 1988 and 2004.
She claimed 11 gold medals, plus four silvers and a bronze, and was created a Life Peer in 2010.
Polish tennis ace Natalia Partyka was just 11 when she made her Games debut in Sydney in 2000 and became the sport’s youngest Paralympic champion four years later in Athens. Born without a right hand and forearm, she is a five-time Paralympic gold medallist and has also competed in the Olympics.
American swimmer Trischa Zorn is the most-decorated Paralympian of all-time. She was legally blind until she received two artificial iris implants in 2003 and won a staggering 41 golds across seven Games between 1980 and 2004.
Canadian athlete Chantal Petitclerc was a dominant force in wheelchair racing from 1996 to 2008. The 51-year-old won 14 Paralympic gold medals in a stellar career, plus five silver and two bronze. In 2016, she was appointed to the Senate of Canada.
Dame Sarah Storey is Britain’s most-decorated female Paralympian. She made her debut in Barcelona aged 14. The 43-yearshe old won five gold, eight silver and three bronze medals across four Games as a swimmer, before switching to the bike and collecting a further nine golds in Beijing, London and Rio.
Reigning Paralympic champion Jonnie Peacock is going for a Paralympic hat-trick in Tokyo. The British sprinter was 19 when he was crowned the fastest amputee on earth at the London Paralympics, winning the 100 metres with a time of 10.9 seconds, a new Paralympic record.
Overcoming adversity is what the Paralympic movement is all about. Sir Ludwig waved off the British team at Heathrow Airport in 1968 when they flew to Israel, in a specially chartered plane with the Irish team, and spent time with 18-year-old Karen Hill, from Mansfield who had lost her job as a telephonist for taking too much time off – she won gold for 50m backstroke.
The much-loved pioneer passed away from a heart attack at the age of 80 in 1980, but his legacy lives on.
This year’s Tokyo Paralympics features 539 events across 22 sports hosted at 21 venues and will see athletes from around the world compete in 23 sports.
Precisely 364 days later than planned, Para athletes will be seeking to realise their sporting dreams in the Japanese capital.