Formerly |
|
---|---|
Sport | Parasports |
Founded | 1948 |
Continent | International (IPC) |
The World Abilitysport Games (known as the IWAS World Games before 2023) are a parasports multi-sport event for athletes who use wheelchairs or are amputees. Organized by World Abilitysport (formerly IWAS), the Games are a successor to the original Stoke Mandeville Games founded in 1948 by Ludwig Guttmann, and the International Stoke Mandeville Games—the first international sporting competition for athletes with disabilities, and the forerunner to the modern Paralympic Games.
The 1960, 1964, 1968, and 1972 editions were held in the same host country as the Summer Olympics; they were later retroactively recognized as the first four Paralympic Games. After the Paralympics expanded to include events for disability classifications other than wheelchairs, the ISMG for wheelchair athletes continued to be hosted in Stoke Mandeville, and later other countries, in non-Paralympic years.
The event was first established in 1948 as the Stoke Mandeville Games by neurologist Ludwig Guttmann, who organized a sporting competition involving World War II veterans with spinal cord injuries at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital rehabilitation facility in Aylesbury, England, taking place concurrently with the first post-war Olympic Games in London. In 1952, the Netherlands joined in the event, creating the first international sports competition for athletes with a disability, after which it was renamed the International Stoke Mandeville Games. [1]
In 1960 and subsequent Olympic years, the ISMG began to increasingly be hosted in the same country (if not the same host city) as their respective Olympics, with all other editions remaining in Stoke Mandeville. The Games were also increasingly referred to as "Paralympics", originally in reference to paraplegia, but later officially referring to an event operating in parallel with the Olympic movement. While the Paralympic Games evolved to include athletes from all disability groups beginning in 1976, the Stoke Mandeville Games continued to be organized as a multi-sport event for wheelchair athletes in non-Paralympic years. Games were held annually in Aylesbury under the direction of the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation (ISMGF), which later became the International Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Sports Federation (ISMWSF).
In 2003, the Games were combined with a competition for amputee athletes organized by the International Sports Organization for the Disabled (ISOD). In 2004, ISMWSF and ISOD merged to create the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation (IWAS). The Games were subsequently renamed the "World Wheelchair and Amputee Games" in 2005, and later renamed to simply the "IWAS World Games".
The inaugural competition, initially named "Stoke Mandeville Games for the Paralyzed" in 1948, was just named "Stoke Mandeville Games" the next year, before becoming the "International Stoke Mandeville Games" (ISMG) in 1952.
Beginning in 1960 during Summer Olympic years, the ISMG were held in the same host city as the Summer Olympics. These particular editions of the Games were retroactively recognised as being the first four Paralympic Games. The Games were otherwise hosted in Stoke Mandeville in all other years. Beginning in 1976, the Paralympic Games began hosting events for amputees and the visually impaired; at this point, the Paralympics were no longer credited as being editions of the ISMG, and thus went on hiatus during Paralympic years.
Year | Name of the event | Host | Annotation |
---|---|---|---|
1948 | Stoke Mandeville Games for the Paralyzed [2] | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | July 28, 1948, archery competition, 16 competitors [3] (14 men, 2 women [4] ) |
1949 | Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | Six teams competed.'wheelchair netball' (later wheelchair basketball) was introduced. [5] |
1950 | Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1951 | Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1952 | 1st International Stoke Mandeville Games [6] | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | A Dutch team participated, making it an international event [3] |
1953 | 2nd International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1954 | 3rd International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1955 | 4th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1956 | 5th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1957 | 6th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1958 | 7th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1959 | 8th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1960 | 9th International Stoke Mandeville Games [7] | Rome, Italy | 400 competitors from 23 countries (10 with medalists) in 8 sports. 1st edition occurring outside UK, in the same host city as the Summer Olympic Games, in the hope of becoming better internationally recognized and integrated with other national and international sports federations to organize what will become later the Paralympic Games. |
1961 | 10th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1962 | 11th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1963 | 12th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1964 | 13th International Stoke Mandeville Games [8] | Tokyo, Japan | |
1965 | 14th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1966 | 15th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1967 | 16th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1968 | 17th International Stoke Mandeville Games [9] | Tel Aviv, Israel | |
1969 | 18th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1970 | 19th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1971 | 20th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1972 | 1972 Summer Paralympics [9] [10] | Heidelberg, West Germany | |
1973 | 22nd International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1974 | 23rd International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1975 | 24th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1977 | 25th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1978 | 26th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1979 | 27th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1981 | 28th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1982 | 29th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1983 | 30th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1985 | 31st International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1986 | 32nd International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1987 | 33rd International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1989 | 34th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1990 | 35th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1991 | 36th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1993 | 37th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1994 | 38th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | |
1995 | 39th International Stoke Mandeville Games | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom |
From 1997, the International Stoke Mandeville Games became the "World Wheelchair Games"; it was later renamed "World Wheelchair and Amputee Games" from 2005, "IWAS World Games" in 2009, and "World Abilitysport Games" in 2023.
Year | Name of the event | Host | Annotation |
---|---|---|---|
1997 | World Wheelchair Games | ||
1998 | World Wheelchair Games | ||
1999 | World Wheelchair Games | Christchurch, New Zealand | |
2001 | World Wheelchair Games [11] | ||
2002 | World Wheelchair Games [11] | ||
2003 | World Wheelchair Games [11] | Christchurch, New Zealand | |
2005 | World Wheelchair and Amputee Games [12] | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Over 700 athletes from 44 nations. Five events: track and field, table tennis, archery, shooting, and billiards. [13] |
2006 | World Wheelchair and Amputee Games | Bangalore, Karnataka, India | |
2007 | World Wheelchair and Amputee Games [14] | Taipei, Chinese Taipei | |
2009 | IWAS World Games [15] [16] [17] [18] | Bangalore, Karnataka, India | |
2011 | IWAS World Games | Sharjah, United Arab Emirates | December 1–10, 2011 [19] |
2013 | IWAS World Games | Stadskanaal, Netherlands | |
2015 | IWAS World Games | Sochi, Russia | |
2017 | IWAS World Games | Vila Real de Santo António, Portugal | |
2019 | IWAS World Games | Sharjah, United Arab Emirates | |
IWAS World Games | Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand | Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [20] | |
IWAS World Games | Vila Real de Santo António, Portugal | Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [21] | |
2022 | IWAS World Games | Vila Real de Santo António, Portugal | Originally scheduled to be hosted by Sochi, Russia, IWAS stripped Sochi of its hosting rights in March 2022 in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and banned Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from participating. [22] The Games were relocated to Vila Real de Santo António, Portugal, which was originally scheduled to host the Games in 2021. [23] |
2023 | World Abilitysport Games | Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand |
For some years now, the IWAS Federation has hosted junior competitions, which were named IWAS World Junior Games by 2015. Since 2016 they are called IWAS Under 23 World Games and will only be played in years with even numbers. [24]
In 2024, World Abilitysport announced its inaugural Guttmann Games. Named after the founder of the Stoke Mandeville Games, the event will take place in Stoke Mandeville in July 2024, and feature competition in sports not on the Paralympic programme. It is scheduled to feature para dance sport and power hockey competitions, as well as wheelchair cricket as a demonstration sport. [25]
Parasports are sports played by people with a disability, including physical and intellectual disabilities. Some parasports are forms of adapted physical activities from existing non-disabled sports, while others have been specifically created for persons with a disability and do not have a non-disabled equivalent. Disability exists in four categories: physical, mental, permanent and temporary. At a competitive level, disability sport classifications are applied to allow people of varying abilities to face similar opposition.
The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, are held almost immediately following the respective Olympic Games. All Paralympic Games are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
The 1984 International Games for the Disabled, canonically the 1984 Summer Paralympics, were the seventh Paralympic Games to be held. There were two separate competitions: one in Stoke Mandeville, England, United Kingdom for wheelchair athletes with spinal cord injuries and the other at the Mitchel Athletic Complex and Hofstra University on Long Island, New York, United States for wheelchair and ambulatory athletes with cerebral palsy, amputees, and les autres [the others]. Stoke Mandeville had been the location of the Stoke Mandeville Games from 1948 onwards, seen as the precursors to the Paralympic Games, as the 9th International Stoke Mandeville Games in Rome in 1960 are now recognised as the first Summer Paralympics. As with the 1984 Summer Olympics, the Soviet Union and other communist countries except China, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Yugoslavia boycotted the Paralympic Games. The Soviet Union did not participate in the Paralympics at the time, arguing that they have no disabled people in the country. The USSR made its Paralympic debut in 1988, during Perestroika.
Wheelchair basketball is a style of basketball played using a sports wheelchair. The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) is the governing body for this sport. It is recognized by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) as the sole competent authority in wheelchair basketball worldwide. FIBA has recognized IWBF under Article 53 of its General Statutes.
WheelPower is the national organisation for wheelchair sports in the United Kingdom, and aims to help people with disabilities improve their quality of life.
World Abilitysport is an international sports organisation that governs sports for athletes with physical impairments.
The Paralympic sports comprise all the sports contested in the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games. As of 2020, the Summer Paralympics included 22 sports and 539 medal events, and the Winter Paralympics include 5 sports and disciplines and about 80 events. The number and kinds of events may change from one Paralympic Games to another.
Wheelchair racing is the racing of wheelchairs in track and road races. Wheelchair racing is open to athletes with any qualifying type of disability, including leg amputees, spinal cord injuries, and cerebral palsy. Athletes are classified in accordance with the nature and severity of their disability or combinations of disabilities. Like running, it can take place on a track or as a road race. The main competitions take place at the Summer Paralympics which wheelchair racing and athletics has been a part of since 1960. Competitors compete in specialized wheelchairs which allow the athletes to reach speeds of 30 km/h (18.6 mph) or more. It is one of the most prominent forms of Paralympic athletics.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has participated in every summer and winter Paralympic Games.
Stoke Mandeville Stadium is the National Centre for Disability Sport in England. It is sited alongside Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. Stoke Mandeville Stadium is owned by WheelPower, the national organisation for wheelchair sport.
Virtus Sport is a federation established in 1986 by Dutch athletic professionals to promote the participation of athletes with mental handicap in elite sports.
The 1968 Summer Paralympics was an international multi-sport event held in Tel Aviv, Israel, from November 4 to 13, 1968, in which athletes with physical disabilities competed against one another. The Paralympics are run in parallel with the Olympic Games; these Games were originally planned to be held alongside the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, but two years prior to the event the Mexican government pulled out due to technical difficulties. At the time, the event was known as the 17th International Stoke Mandeville Games. The Stoke Mandeville Games were a forerunner to the Paralympics first organized by Sir Ludwig Guttmann in 1948. This medal table ranks the competing National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) by the number of gold medals won by their athletes.
Disability sports classification is a system that allows for fair competition between people with different types of disabilities.
Para-alpine skiing classification is the classification system for para-alpine skiing designed to ensure fair competition between alpine skiers with different types of disabilities. The classifications are grouped into three general disability types: standing, blind and sitting. Classification governance is handled by International Paralympic Committee Alpine Skiing. Prior to that, several sport governing bodies dealt with classification including the International Sports Organization for the Disabled (ISOD), International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation (ISMWSF), International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) and Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CP-ISRA). Some classification systems are governed by bodies other than International Paralympic Committee Alpine Skiing, such as the Special Olympics. The sport is open to all competitors with a visual or physical disability. It is not open to people with intellectual disabilities.
Wheelchair fencing classification is the classification system for wheelchair fencing which is governed by the IWAS. People with physical disabilities are eligible to compete included people with physical disabilities. Classification for national competitions is done through the local national Paralympic committee.
LA4 is a Les Autres sport classification is an ambulatory sport classification for a sportsperson with a disability that impacts their locomotor function. People in this class may or may not uses crutches and/or braces on a daily basis. They have some issues with balance and reduced function in their upper limbs.
Wheelchair sport classification is a system designed to allow fair competition between people of different disabilities, and minimize the impact of a person's specific disability on the outcome of a competition. Wheelchair sports is associated with spinal cord injuries, and includes a number of different types of disabilities including paraplegia, quadriplegia, muscular dystrophy, post-polio syndrome and spina bifida. The disability must meet minimal body function impairment requirements. Wheelchair sport and sport for people with spinal cord injuries is often based on the location of lesions on the spinal cord and their association with physical disability and functionality.
SS2 is a Les Autres sport classification ambulatory class for people with short stature. Eligible males have a standing height and arm length that added together are equal to or less than 200 centimetres (79 in). Eligible female have a standing height and arm length that added together are equal to or less than 190 centimetres (75 in). Internationally, governance for this sport is handled by IWAS, following the 2005 merger of ISMWSF and ISOD. Classification is handled nationally by relevant national organizations. People in this class can participate in a number of sports including athletics, swimming, and para-equestrian.
The Cerebral Palsy Games are a multi-sport competition for athletes with a disability, which under the former name of the International Stoke Mandeville Games were the forerunner of the Paralympic Games. The competition has been formerly known as the International Cerebral Palsy Games or the Stoke Mandeville Games. Since the 1990s the Games are organized by the organisation Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CPISRA), so they called also CPISRA World Games.
Joan Scruton was an organizing member of the International Stoke Mandeville Games from 1952 to 1968, which became the Paralympic Games in 1960. Apart from the games, Scruton was secretary general at the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation from 1975 to 1982. Scruton was named a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1975 and awarded the Paralympic Order in 1999.