From Wheelchair Polo for Wounded Veterans to the Paralympics

One early morning in the English town of Aylesbury, a doctor in round spectacles and a white lab coat began his usual rounds at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. These were the dreary days immediately following World War II, and the hospital—which took in soldiers paralyzed from shrapnel injuries—was only a little less dreary. But that morning, the neurologist caught sight of something that would soon change history. Gathered on the lawn, some of Dr. Ludwig Guttmann’s paraplegic patients were swatting a puck around with inverted walking canes. “Wheelchair polo,” they called it. Guttmann was already a pioneer in treating spinal injuries by prescribing physical activity over bed rest. But the neurologist’s own patients opened his eyes to a larger idea: Physical therapy in the form of competitive sport wouldn’t just build the confidence of the players, but also become a movement unto itself. They Come to Play For the 2012 Paralympics, London set a new standard by building the fully accessible Stratford transport hub (1), which included train platforms with minimal gaps. The Paralympics feature a huge variety of sports (six in the winter and 22 in summer) and athletes who devote their lives to training, though they may never become household names. Shown here are Egyptian table tennis star Ibrahim Elhusseiny Hamadtou (2) and downhill standing para alpine skiing great Hiraku Misawa of Japan (3). The 1948 Stoke Mandeville Games had a modest beginning: 16 veterans playing archery. But by 1960, the competition had expanded to eight sports, drawing 400 athletes from 23 countries. It also had a new name: the Paralympics. Today, the Paralympics is as well-known as its older cousin, the Olympics. But its strides have been comparatively recent. In 1980, Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev—who’d been happy to host the Summer Olympics in Moscow—turned away the Paralympics. “In our country,” he announced, “there are no disabled people.” Fast-forward to 2021, and the Summer Paralympics in Tokyo drew 4,403 athletes to compete in 22 events in front of an audience of 14 million. “Society has evolved,” the International Paralympic Committee’s chief brand officer Craig Spence told Adweek. “Although a massive amount still needs to be done to drive inclusion for the word’s 1.2 billion persons with disabilities, there is no question that some progress has been made in the last five decades.” Pride and prejudice A pioneer in the rehabilitation of veterans with spinal cord injuries, Dr. Ludwig Guttmann (1) began staging the Stoke Mandeville Games in the late 1940s (2), an event that grew into the Paralympics. The nadir of Paralympics history came in 1980, when Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev refused to host the Games, insisting that the USSR had 'no disabled people.' Progress, yes—and also some shrewd marketing. In 2001, the IPC formalized an agreement with the International Olympic Committee that both Olympics and Paralympics would take place in the same host cities, an automatic pairing that “led to an exponential growth in spectator numbers and TV audiences,” Spence said. Equally critical was a 2018 agreement by which top-tier corporate sponsors of the Olympics automatically became primary sponsors of the Paralympics, too. That deal has since seen multinationals like P&G, Toyota and Visa put their considerable heft behind the Games. Despite these changes, individual para athletes have yet to see the lucrative sponsorships of their Olympian counterparts. Nonetheless, one can only imagine Dr. Guttmann marveling at what his Stoke Mandeville Games have become. In 2012, the late neurologist’s daughter Eva Loeffler—herself a physiotherapist—attended the London Paralympics. “I just hope he’s up there, watching it all,” she said. Can Sports Really Change Perceptions? In addition to bringing the Paralympics to a global stage, the IPC recently broadened its mission to make the world itself more inclusive. How can a cluster of sporting events accomplish a task as daunting as that? As “the biggest showcase of disability on the planet,” Spence said, the Paralympics have “a profound impact” on governments, corporations and the public. He cites the 2012 Games in London as an example, which spurred the city to increase the accessibility of facilities like hotels and train stations. One survey found that 83% of Channel 4's viewers believed that the TV coverage had improved public attitudes toward disabled people. According to IPC research, companies had hired a million more people with disabilities by 2018 than were employed prior to the Games. This story is part of Adweek’s New Consumer digital package, which focuses on diversity in all the ways it manifests for consumers—including gender, race, age and ability—and how marketers need to reach people where they are and meet their unique needs. For Marketers to Target Disabled Audiences, They Must First Look Within Their Own Companies

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How Wheelchair Polo for Wounded Veterans Became the Paralympics

Paralyzed WWII soldiers and a visionary doctor gave rise to a global athletic movement

Robert Klara

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Robert Klara