Disabled people have been participating in sport since historical times as a means of improving their physical health. After the First World War, servicemen who had lost limbs or had been blinded took part in competitive sport. Until the development of the modern treatment of spinal injuries, patients with paraplegia died rapidly from overwhelming sepsis but as a result of modern treatment people with paraplegia returned to work and developed their own sports movement. They now compete successfully in dramatic wheelchair sports such as marathon racing and the exciting sport of wheelchair basketball. This paper describes the development of this movement.
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References
1.
SilverJR.History of the treatment of Spinal Injuries. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers; 2003.
