Dáithaí C: Bring on the Paralympics

Sir Ludwig "Poppa" Guttmann and an admirer at
Stoke Mandeville Stadium

The Olympics have been a game changer for its host city of London and in particular for East London. Once on the periphery East London for the 16 days of The Olympics became the centre of the World, indeed at times shops in Central London seemed deserted. For those of us in London and the many visitors the Olympics provided a great sense of occasion and a truly wonderful atmosphere. London has held a "fabulous" Olympics, enabling athletes to "make history", the president of the International Olympic Committee has said. Jacques Rogge thanked the organisers Locog for their efforts saying "I am a very happy and grateful man".

Mandeville, the Paralympic Mascot in front of the
Guttmann Centre at Stoke Mandeville

Now all eyes will turn on The Paralympics which will make history by becoming the first to sell out as Londoners seek to prolong the 2012 excitement. The Paralympics are a particular source of pride in the village of Stoke Mandeville where Dáithaí C resides for it is the local Stoke Mandeville Hospital and a remarkable surgeon Ludwig Guttmann who gave birth to the remarkable phenomenon of the Paralympics. And as the first organised “Stoke Mandeville Games” took place in conjunction with the 1948 Olympic Games hosted in a war shattered London then for the 2012 games in London the Paralympics will truly be coming home!

http://daithaic.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/paralympic-games.html

The "Agitos" symbol of the Paralympic Games flying above No. 10 Downing Street
and in front of Stoke Mandeville Hospital where the work pioneered by
Poppa Guttman is carried on today at the National Spinal Injuries Centre

War has everything to do with the foundation of the Paralympics and with the remarkable Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, Ludwig Guttmann. Sir Ludwig "Poppa" Guttmann (Born July 3, 1899 in Toszek (Poland) - March 18, 1980) was a German-born neurologist who founded the Paralympics and is considered one of the founding fathers of organised physical activities for the disabled. One of the leading pre-World War II neurologists in Germany, Guttmann worked at the Jewish Hospital in Breslau until 1939, when he was forced to flee to England.

Mandeville - The Paralympic Mascot
practicing his archery

For the story of the Olympic Mascots, Wenlock and Mandeville see;

http://www.daithaic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/wenlock-and-mandeville.html

In 1944, Guttmann was asked by the British government to found the National Spinal Injuries Centre in Stoke Mandeville near London, at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital. He was appointed to the position of director at the Centre, a position he held until 1966. The hospital had been founded in 1830 as an out of town treatment centre during a cholera epidemic in Buckinghamshire and during the war the Canadian Army used land beside the hospital as billets before D-Day importing and building substantial wooden buildings which were subsequently used to treat some of the large number of servicemen, particularly RAF Aircrew who had severe spinal injuries and other disabilities. As director, he believed sport was a method of therapy, using it to help build physical strength and self-respect. Before Guttmann and his pioneering methods the medical profession generally wrote off such patients and most died within a year from infection and other complications.

Archery at the 1948 Stoke Mandeville Games held in
conjunction with the 1948 Olympics

By 1952, Guttmann's Stoke Mandeville Games for the disabled had grown to over 130 international competitors, and it continued to grow, impressing Olympics officials and the international community. In 1956, Guttmann was awarded the Fearnley Cup, an award for outstanding contribution to the Olympic ideal. Starting in 1960 in Rome and continuing to today, the Paralympic Games are held after the Olympic Games, often in the same city. In 1960 Guttmann also founded the British Sports Association of the Disabled. Guttmann received Great Britain's OBE and CBE and was honoured worldwide.

The original Games couldn't have been more different from the international event they have become today. On July 29th, 1948, 16 paralysed ex-serviceman gathered on the lawn of Stoke Mandeville Hospital to take part in the first ever Stoke Mandeville Games. In a decision, that was to prove very significant, they were held to coincide with the opening of the Olympic Games in London. The beginning of the sports movement for the disabled had begun. The games were held again at the same location in 1952, and Dutch veterans took part alongside the British, making it the first international competition of its kind. These Stoke Mandeville Games have been described as the precursors of the Paralympic Games. The Paralympics were subsequently formalised as a quadrennial event tied to the Olympic Games, and the first official Paralympic Games, no longer open solely to war veterans, were held in Rome in 1960. At the Toronto 1976 Games other groups of athletes with different disabilities were also included.

Today the Paralympic Games is the biggest multi-sport event for disabled athletes in the world. Participation spans 140 countries and covers six classification groups from those with spinal cord injuries to the visually impaired. At the London 2012 Games more than 4,000 athletes will compete in 20 sports watched by television audiences around the world.

The athletes of the XIV Paralympiad are, increasingly, recognised as elite disabled sportsmen and women competing in the same city, and venues, as their Olympic counterparts. For their very early predecessors though it was a very different story.

Whether from Britain, or abroad, many of those competing at London 2012 were born long after Guttmann’s death in 1980. And yet the recognition and respect the current generation of Paralympic athletes enjoy owes much to Guttmann's steadfast commitment to restoring confidence and self-belief to those, who through accident or illness, had become disabled.

Paralympic Torch

Stoke Mandeville Stadium will be the venue for the official Paralympic Flame Lighting Ceremony on 28 August. Four flames from London, Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh will be united in the stadium to form the Paralympic Flame ahead of the 24-hour overnight Relay, concluding at the Olympic Stadium on 29 August. Sir Philip Craven, International Paralympic Committee President, said: 'The announcement of the route for the Paralympic Torch Relay is another step closer to the start of the Paralympic Games.

'I think it is fantastic that is starts at Stoke Mandeville, the spiritual birthplace of the Movement, and am confident that the British public will turn out in force to support those taking part in the Relay.'

Nighttime Paralympic Torch Relay going through Stoke
Mandeville Village on the way to light the Olympic Cauldron
at the Opening Ceremony on Wednesday August 29th 2012

The 24-hour torch relay heralding the start of the 2012 Paralympic Games in London has started today 28^th August. Four national flames, kindled last week, were brought together at a ceremony in Stoke Mandeville - the spiritual home of the Paralympics. The national flames were united in a celebration cauldron on stage. The flame lit from that cauldron will be carried from Buckinghamshire to London for Wednesday's opening ceremony at the Olympic Stadium.

Preparations for the Paralympic Flame Celebration in
Aylesbury, the County Town of Buckinghamshire near Stoke Mandeville

The 24-hour Relay sees the Paralympic Flame carried 87 miles by 580 inspirational Torchbearers, working in teams of five, from Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire to London. The Flame will travel through communities in Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire before visiting a number of iconic London landmarks, including Piccadilly Circus, Westminster Abbey, Downing Street and Trafalgar Square – which will host live entertainment and sport screened throughout the Paralympic

Games It will also cross the River Thames over some of London’s most famous bridges including Lambeth Bridge, Waterloo Bridge and Tower Bridge.

Classification is a unique element of Paralympic sports, intended to ensure fair competition. As each sport at the Paralympic Games requires different skills and competencies, the impact of impairment on the performance of the athletes varies. That’s why each sport has its own unique classification rules.

Dr Ludwig Guttmann, seen by many as the founding father of the Paralympic movement, passionately believed that his patients, with the right help and support, could lead fulfilling lives.

Sir Ludwig Guttmann's portrait at Stoke Mandeville

"Paraplegia is not the end of the way. It is the beginning of a new life," he once said. And sport played a very important role in achieving that goal - both physically and psychologically.

"The aims of sport for the disabled, as well as the non-disabled, are to develop mental activity, self-confidence, self-discipline, a competitive spirit and comradeship."

Ludwig Guttmann

Stoke Mandeville Games 1948

The Paralympic Games are a multi-sport event for athletes with physical, mental, and sensorial disabilities. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy. The Paralympic Games are held every four years, following the Olympic Games, and are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). The Paralympic Games are sometimes confused with the Special Olympics World Games, which are only for people with intellectual disabilities.

Although the name was originally coined as a portmanteau combining “paraplegic” (due to its origins as games for people with spinal injuries) and “Olympic”, the inclusion of other disability groups meant that this was no longer considered appropriate. The word “Paralympic” derives from the Greek preposition “para” (beside or alongside) and the word “Olympic”. Its meaning is that Paralympics are the parallel Games to the Olympics and illustrates how the two movements exist side-by-side.

Hot on the tremendous success more than 2.3 million of 2.5 million tickets for the London 2012 Paralympic Games have been sold. Ticket sales have outstripped any previous Paralympics, with the International Paralympic Committee hoping the Games will enjoy the first sell-out in its 52-year history.

Paralympic Flame Relay at Stoke Mandeville Stadium

The legacy of Dr Guttmann is clearly still very much at the heart of the movement he helped found in Stoke Mandeville 64 years ago. Guttmann's work at Stoke Mandeville inspired this great addition to the Olympic ideal and the Guttmann centre continues this work today. And in Stoke Mandeville in 2012 we might feel a little extra pride that the amazing feat of human effort in the face of adversity known as the Paralympic Games are “coming home”.