IWAS_World_Games

World Abilitysport Games

World Abilitysport Games

Parasports competition

The World Abilitysport Games 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.

Quick Facts Formerly, Sport ...

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.

History

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".

Games by year

Israeli delegation to the games, 1969

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.

More information Year, Name of the event ...

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.

More information Year, Name of the event ...

IWAS Under 23 World Games (IWAS Junior World Games)

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]

More information No., Year ...

World Abilitysport Guttmann Games

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]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Vanlandewijck, Yves (2011). The Paralympic Athlete : Handbook of Sports Medicine and Science. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 3–30.
  2. [2]
    Paralympics: Where Heroes Come Archived 2010-06-11 at the Wayback Machine, by Dr. Robert Steadward and Cynthia Peterson. Edmonton, Alberta: One Shot Holdings Ltd., 1997, melazerte.com, May 30, 2010.
  3. [3]
    Remembering Paralympics past, BBC, July 15, 2008.
  4. [4]
    The Paralympics: It all started with Veterans Archived 2016-08-15 at the Wayback Machine. Veteran Affairs Canada
  5. [5]
    "the very first gamez". mandeville legacy.
  6. [6]
    Chronology of Events in the Development of Wheelchair Basketball Archived 2011-04-30 at the Wayback Machine, International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF)
  7. [7]
    Rome 1960, International Paralympic Committee (IPC)
  8. [8]
    The Thirteenth International Stoke Mandeville Games for The Paralysed, dinf.ne.jp, March 17, 1999.
  9. [9]
    Summer Games Governance 1960 to 1992 Archived 2012-12-16 at archive.today, International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation (IWAS)
  10. [10]
    21st Wheelchair Olympics, by Charles J. Bierbauer, The Pittsburgh Press, August 1, 1972, Google News Archive Search
  11. [11]
    2003 World Wheelchair Games / Jeux Mondiaux 2003 Archived 2010-02-17 at the Wayback Machine, Canadian Wheelchair Sports Association
  12. [12]
    2005 World Wheelchair and Amputee Games Archived 2010-12-12 at the Wayback Machine, cwsa.ca
  13. [13]
    21. Sports – Accomplishments Abroad – The First IWAS World Wheelchair and Amputee Games Archived 2011-06-18 at the Wayback Machine, gio.gov.tw
  14. [14]
    Singapore wins 14 medals at 2007 World Wheelchair and Amputee Games, sglead.wordpress.com, September 18, 2007.
  15. [15]
    Official website of the 2009 IWAS World Games Archived 2010-05-07 at the Wayback Machine
  16. [16]
    2009 IWAS World Wheelchair & Amputee Games, International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation (IWAS) Archived 2012-09-08 at archive.today
  17. [17]
    The Official Website of 2009 IWAS World Games Archived 2010-05-07 at the Wayback Machine
  18. [18]
    2009 IWAS World Games[permanent dead link], International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation (IWAS), November 24, 2009.
  19. [19]
    IWAS announced today that the bid to host the IWAS World Games[permanent dead link], International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation (IWAS), February 8, 2011.
  20. [20]
    "IWAS World Games cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic". www.insidethegames.biz. 2020-10-03. Retrieved 2024-03-24.
  21. [21]
    "IWAS World Games in Portugal cancelled due to COVID-19". www.insidethegames.biz. 2021-09-27. Retrieved 2024-03-24.
  22. [22]
    "IWAS Statement – Russia and Belarus". Int'l Wheelchair & Amputee Sports Federation. 9 March 2022. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
  23. [23]
    "IWAS relocates 2022 World Games to Vila Real de Santo Antonio in Portugal". www.insidethegames.biz. 2022-03-16. Retrieved 2024-03-24.
  24. [24]
    IWAS announces a new look for their IWAS Games programme[permanent dead link], auf: iwasf.com, retrieved 9 September 2016.
  25. [25]
    "Inaugural World Abilitysport Guttmann Games Details Announced - World Abilitysport". worldabilitysport.org. 2024-01-11. Retrieved 2024-03-24.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article IWAS_World_Games, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.