Paralympics Begin Today
The Paralympic Games begin today. Photo by flickr.com/photos/usnavy.Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
About 4,000 athletes competing in 21 sports are in London for the Paralympic Games, which start today. KUT’s Jennifer Stayton talked with Dr. Steven Ungerleider, co-chair of the board of advisers of the Texas Program in Sports and Media and a visiting scholar at UT- Austin, about the games, including how they got started.
It came out of the rehab and physical therapy movement after veterans were coming back from the war. They needed to adapt to wheelchairs and double amputees and paraplegic, quadriplegic folks needed a different type of rehab mechanism. Some very creative people got involved and started some playing and worked physical therapy into a play modality, and henceforth wheelchair basketball and some other sports came about.
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