Sport for the blind and people with physical deficiencies have its beginning at the hospital of Stoke Manderville (England) and it was by the hand of the Ludwin Guttman Doctor that would be the “Coubertain” of all the blind and visual deficient people according to Pope Juan XXIII In that hospital there were lots of people with spinal injuries after the second world war. Guttmann wanted to use sport as a way of rehabilitation, and for this reason ,in 1948, he organised the first competition for these people. It was in the English city of Aylesbury and was given the name of “Stoke Mandervile Games” . It was in the same year as the Olympic games celebrated in London After the great success in the therapeutic field, they decided to celebrate the competition every year, achieving a greater number of participation of competitors, with different disabilities and from different countries, every year. It went on until 1960 when the first Paralympics Games were celebrated in Rome together with the Olympic Games. The official name of the games was “the I X th International Games of Stoke Manderville “. The name of Paralympic Games was not accepted by the COI until 1984. Since then, the Paralympic Games have been celebrated at the same time as the Olympic Games. However , they were not always celebrated in the same city until 1988 when the COI passed a law which obliges the cities to celebrate both competitions in the same place. It was in Heidelberg 72 (Germany) when the blind sport people start to participate in the world of parlympics, but it was just a exhibition . It was in Toronto 76 ( Canada) when they started to compete in the games and where the Spanish competitor started to show their abilities. Since those days all the Spanish athletes have been in all of the international meetings. In 1968 The Spanish Federation of Sport was open for disabled sport people. This helped the blind to enter international competitions. In the 80’s O.N.C.E created “Negociado de Deportes” . It was as a result of the good records from the blind athletes but the decrease in new participants in competitions. The number of athletes was going down due to the little attention received from the FEDM. The blind athletes decide to organise their own competitions. The first championship organised by the blind athletes with their own logotype is in the Berlin World Competition in 1994. Not only blind people participated there, but other disabled athletes. Other countries had the same problems as Spain and in 1998 the International Sport Association for The Blind organised a World Championship for the first time. The Paralympics was at the time the competition for all disabled people . In 1990 FEDM was separated in five differents Federations for the “Ley Española de Deportes 10/90”: And FEDC was known by the “Consejo Superior de Deportes” and written at the “Registro de Entidades Deportivas” in 1993. But since 1994 there wasn’t president. Those five federations are managed by the “Spanish Paralympic Comité”. That was made in 1995. And it can be used to unite those companies with CSD and the “International Paralympic Comité”, was made in 1984, but since 1992, after the Paralympic Games in Barcelona 1992. The first regional Federation for blind and visual deficient people, that at the moment is the only Federation existence, is the Catalan Federation of Sports for Blind and Visual Deficient made in 1999. The first competition of Athletics was in Catalunya in 2000. People who played at the Paralympic Games for their first time were Alejo Vélez (High Jump), Juan Viedma (Long Lump & Triple Jump), Sergio Sánchez (400, 800 & 4X400), José Luis Tobar (400, 800 & 1500), Raquel Díaz (100 & 200) and Magdalena Amo (Long Jump). Nowadays Abel Avila has the record man of 10000 .
|