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

Sir Ludwig Guttmann organized the first competition for injured World War II veterans on the same day the 1948 London Olympics opened, an event that later grew into the Paralympic Games.

1. Running competition: The veterans Guttmann worked with had spinal cord injuries and were not able to run, so a standard running event would not have suited the participants he was organizing for.
2. Swimming competition: While swimming later became part of the wider Paralympic program, Guttmann's original 1948 event, the Stoke Mandeville Games, was specifically built around wheelchair archery for spinally injured patients, not swimming.
3. Wheelchair competition: This matches directly, Guttmann's patients used wheelchairs, and his event was a wheelchair-based competition designed as rehabilitation and sport for them, which is exactly what became the founding event of the Paralympic movement.
4. Bicycle competition: A bicycle event would again have been unsuitable for patients with spinal cord injuries who could not pedal a standard bicycle, and this was not part of Guttmann's original event.

Only the wheelchair-based format fits both the physical condition of the participants and the historical record of what Guttmann actually organized in 1948.

The correct answer is Wheelchair competition.