HIBAPRESS-RABAT
After the Paris 2024 Olympic Games which have just ended, here comes the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games which will start next Wednesday still in Paris. It is customary to see the two Games take place with a difference of two weeks to a month at most and which this time bring together People with Disabilities for a high-end competition full of good performances and who constantly seek to challenge Healthy People
So today, we’re going to discover the history of the Paralympic Games, these Games that officially began in 1948 in a military hospital located 60km north of London, in Stoke Mandeville. Sir Ludwig Guttmann, a German neurologist, is looking for a way to speed up the recovery of his paraplegic patients, all veterans of the Second World War. His specialized unit brings together Royal Air Force pilots, spinal cord injuries, all in wheelchairs. He imagines sporting events at the very moment that the Olympic Games are taking place in London.
Sixteen wheelchair veterans will compete in archery and netball (derived from basketball), a sport already practiced by American veterans returning from the front. Dr. Guttmann has unwittingly created a new sports movement.
Until then, the problem was hopeless, because it was not only necessary to save the lives of these paraplegic and quadriplegic men, women and children, but it was also necessary to restore their dignity and make them happy and respected citizens.
