The origins of sport for disabled people.

ABSTRACT

The disabled sports movement is considered to have started in 1948 when, under the aegis of Ludwig Guttmann, England hosted the first wheelchair games at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. In this review, we challenge the assumption that sport for disabled people started after the Second World War and contend that it was already practised in an organised fashion in France, Germany and the UK before and after the First World War.