Great_Britain_at_the_Paralympics
Great Britain at the Paralympics
Sporting event delegation
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has participated in every summer and winter Paralympic Games.
While the Olympic Games find their origin in Ancient Greece, post-war Britain, and specifically the Stoke Mandeville Hospital, is recognised as the spiritual birthplace and home of the Paralympics. The first Paralympic Games, held in Rome in 1960, were simultaneously the 9th International Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Games, a competition first devised by Dr Ludwig Guttmann in 1948 to coincide with the London Olympic Games of 1948, for soldiers with spinal cord injuries being cared for in Stoke Mandeville Hospital. While the Stoke Mandeville Games continue to exist as the IWAS World Games, a specific event for wheelchair and amputee athletes, the Paralympic Games evolved from its Stoke Mandeville Games roots to include a comprehensive range of disabilities. This legacy is commemorated before each Paralympic Games since 2012 with the lighting of a 'legacy flame' at Stoke Mandeville as part of the Paralympic torch event.[1]
Great Britain has performed particularly well at the Summer Paralympic Games, consistently finishing among the top five in the medal tables - a marginally better performance than at the Olympics - reflecting the country's sustained connection to and deep support for the event. Britain has won three gold medals at the Winter Paralympics and 626 at the Summer Games. Combining these results, the British team is positioned in second place on the all-time Paralympic Games medal table.
Great Britain was the host of the first Stoke Mandeville Games to coincide with London's hosting of the 1948 Summer Olympics, one of the co-host countries of the 1984 Summer Paralympics in Stoke Mandeville, sharing the duties with New York to coincide with the United States hosting the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and the sole host, for the first time, of the 2012 Summer Paralympics, in London.
Although the country uses the name "Great Britain", athletes from Northern Ireland are entitled to compete as part of British delegations. Representatives of the devolved Northern Ireland government, however, have objected to the name, which they argue creates a perception that Northern Ireland is not part of the British Olympic team, and have called for the team to be renamed as Team UK.[2][3]
Under the terms of a long-standing settlement between the British Paralympic Association and the Paralympics Ireland, athletes from Northern Ireland can elect to represent Ireland at the Paralympics, as Northern Irish people are legally entitled to dual citizenship.[4] Some athletes have represented both nations, and Bethany Firth, a paralympic swimmer from Northern Ireland, has won gold medals for both nations.
Great Britain's most successful Paralympian is swimmer turned cyclist Sarah Storey, who took the honour at the 2020 Summer Paralympics when she won her 16th gold medal, and 27th medal in all. Prior to 2020, the record had been held for decades by swimmer Mike Kenny who also won 16 individual gold medals, as well as two relay silvers, in four Games.[5] Although Great Britain has competed in every Games, the British Paralympic Committee was only founded in 1989, after Kenny's retirement. Media in Britain consistently referred to the most decorated Paralympic athletes from that year, Tanni Grey-Thompson, Dave Roberts and Sarah Storey as Britain's "greatest Paralympians", occasionally with the phrase "of the modern era", attached.[6] The International Paralympic Committee, however, recognise all of Kenny's eighteen medals as Paralympic medals, and he remains Great Britain's most successful male Paralympian and the most successful British Paralympian in a single sport (Of her 16 gold medals, Storey won 11 in cycling and 5 in swimming).[7]
Great Britain's first Paralympic gold was earned at the 1960 Rome Games by Margaret Maughan. Her feat was recognised when Maughan was chosen to light the Paralympic Flame during the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Summer Paralympics.[8]
Great Britain's first Winter Paralympic gold was earned at the Sochi 2014 Games by Kelly Gallagher and guide Charlotte Evans in the Women's super-G visually impaired.
Multiple athletes have won 4 medals at the Winter Paralympics for Great Britain, each in alpine skiing. Most recently by Menna Fitzpatrick and her guide Jennifer Kehoe in 2018, Jade Etherington and guide Caroline Powell in 2014. Richard Burt won 4 medals across two games in 1992 and 1994. However, Fitzpatrick and her guide Kehoe are the only athletes to have won a gold medal. The only other British athlete to have won a gold medal at the Winter Paralympics is Kelly Gallagher and her guide Charlotte Evans, also in alpine skiing in 2014.
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