Rome 1960

The Rome 1960 Paralympic Games are considered the first official Paralympic Games in the history of the Paralympic Movement. They took place from 18 to 25 September 1960, six days after the Closing Ceremony of the XVII Olympic Games in the same city.

Organised by Sir Ludwig Guttmann, the founder of the Paralympic Movement, and Dr Antonio Maglio, an Italian neurosurgeon, the Rome 1960 Games were an important step forward in sport for athletes with physical disabilities. At the time the Games were known as the 9th Annual International Stoke Mandeville Games.

A total of 319 athletes from 21 countries, all with a spinal cord injury, competed across eight sports.

COMPETING NATIONS AND ATHLETES

Events: 114 across eight sports

Countries: 21

Para athletes: 319

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SPORTS

Eight different sports debuted at the first Paralympic Games. These were: Para archery, Para athletics, dartchery, snooker, Para swimming, Para table tennis, wheelchair fencing and wheelchair basketball.

Each sport was considered beneficial and suitable for the rehabilitation of athletes with spinal cord injuries.

©INAIL

Results

Hosts Italy topped the medals table with 29 gold, 29 silver and 24 bronze medals for a total of 82 medals. Great Britain and West Germany stood in second and third places with a total of 54 (21 gold, 14 silver, and 19 bronze) medals and 30 (15 gold, 6 silver and 9 bronze) medals respectively.

Country

Gold

Silver

Bronze

ITA

GBR

GER

AUT

USA

OPENING CEREMONY

The Opening Ceremony took place on 18 September 1960 at the Acqua Acetosa Stadium in Rome. A crowd of 5,000 spectators welcomed wheelchair athletes during the athlete's parade.

Great Britain was the first country in the parade as it was recognised as the founding country of the Games. The other countries followed in alphabetical order and Italy as host country closed the parade.

The Italian Minister for Health, Camillo Giardina, officially declared the Games open to the world.

©INAIL

CLOSING CEREMONY

The closing ceremony took place on 25 September in the Palazetto Dello Sport in the Olympic Village, Rome. Sir Guttmann and the wife of the President of Italy, Donna Carla Gronchi, attended the ceremony.

The ceremony began with a parade of the participating countries' flags carried by the Italian Navy.

Sir Guttmann summed up the Games saying: "The vast majority of competitors and escorts have fully understood the meaning of the Rome Games as a new pattern of reintegration of the paralysed into society, as well as the world of sport."

ORGANISATION

Sir Ludwig Guttmann and Dr Antonia Maglio, Director of the Spinal Centre in Rome, started preparations for the Games two years prior. They would be called the 9th International Stoke Mandeville Games but later came to be known as the inaugural Paralympic Games.

Dr Maglio played a central role in gaining the patronage of Carla Gronchi, wife of the President of Italy, and persuading top Italian political and sport authorities to organise the Games in the same facilities and residences as the Olympic Games in 1960.

The Rome 1960 Games were supported by the Italian Olympic Committee and the Italian National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (INAIL).

LEGACY

The 9th Annual International Stoke Mandeville Games, retroactively designated as the 1960 Paralympic Games. They were organised under the aegis of the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation.

On 26 September 1960, Pope John XXIII held an audience at the Vatican with 350 Para athletes who had competed at the Rome 1960 Games, bringing much needed visibility to the event.

Medals

A medal won at the Rome 1960 Paralympic Games, the first official Paralympic Games in the history of the Paralympic Movement, where 319 athletes from 21 countries competed across eight sports.