Question

Which of the following competition was organised by Guttmann at the 1948 London Olympics for disabled persons?

• A. Running competition
• B. Swimming competition
• C. Wheelchair competition
• D. Bicycle competition

Hint:

The 1948 Stoke Mandeville Games are considered the milestone that shifted disabled sports from "rehabilitation" to "competition."

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
Sir Ludwig Guttmann is known as the father of the Paralympic movement. He used sports as a form of rehabilitation for soldiers injured during World War II.
Step 2: Detailed Explanation:

1. In 1948, on the same day as the opening of the London Summer Olympics, Guttmann organized the first competition for wheelchair athletes.
2. This event was known as the Stoke Mandeville Games.
3. It specifically involved a wheelchair archery/competition for veterans with spinal cord injuries.
4. This event eventually evolved into the modern Paralympic Games.
Step 3: Final Answer: (C) Wheelchair competition.

Answer 2

This question is about identifying which type of competition Sir Ludwig Guttmann organized for disabled war veterans in 1948, timed to coincide with the London Olympics. Checking each option against what is actually known about the event and its participants settles the answer.

1. Running competition: Guttmann's patients at Stoke Mandeville Hospital were World War II veterans with spinal cord injuries, many of them paraplegic. A running event requires the use of the legs, which rules it out as something these particular patients could take part in.
2. Swimming competition: Although sport in water later became a recognized part of adaptive athletics, the specific 1948 event Guttmann organized on the opening day of the London Olympics was a competition held on land, not in a pool, so swimming does not match the historical event.
3. Wheelchair competition: Since Guttmann's patients used wheelchairs due to their spinal injuries, he designed the event, wheelchair archery, around what they could actually do. This wheelchair-based competition, known as the Stoke Mandeville Games, is recognized as the direct precursor to today's Paralympic Games.
4. Bicycle competition: Cycling requires leg function and balance that spinally injured, wheelchair-using patients would not have had, making this option inconsistent with who the event was actually designed for.

Given that the event was built specifically around patients using wheelchairs, the format that matches both their physical condition and the historical record is the wheelchair competition.

Therefore, the correct answer is Wheelchair competition.