The World Abilitysport Games are a parasports multi-sport event for athletes who use wheelchairs or are amputees. Organized by World Abilitysport, the Games are a successor to the original Stoke Mandeville Games founded in 1948 by Ludwig Guttmann, and the International Stoke Mandeville Games—the first international sporting competition for athletes with disabilities, and the forerunner to the modern Paralympic Games.
Israeli delegation to the games, 1969
Parasports are sports played by people with a disability, including physical and intellectual disabilities. Some parasports are forms of adapted physical activities from existing non-disabled sports, while others have been specifically created for persons with a disability and do not have a non-disabled equivalent. Disability exists in four categories: physical, mental, permanent and temporary. At a competitive level, disability sport classifications are applied to allow people of varying abilities to face similar opposition.
Iris Pruysen competes in the long jump at the 2014 Paris Athletics Paralympic Meeting.
A wheelchair racer during the Marathon International de Paris (Paris Marathon) in 2014.
Wounded Warrior Chuck Sketch participates in swim practice on Feb. 14, 2012 at United States Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.