Australian Paralympic Committee

For a breakdown of the medals won, click here.
 
For a full list of the 2004 Australian Paralympic Team, click here.
 
 
2000 Sydney, Australia
18-29 October 2000:
 
The Sydney Games attracted 3,843 athletes from 125 countries. The home team comprised 436 athletes and officials, contesting 10 of the 18 sports. The incredibly successful Sydney Games gave Australian Paralympism its most definitive boost with the largest attendances, most comprehensive media coverage and best-performed Paralympic team in history. Dr Robert Steadwood, then President of the IPC declared Sydney the “best Games ever”.

For a breakdown of the medals won, click here.
 
For a full list of the 2000 Australian Paralympic Team, click here. 
 
 
1996 Atlanta, USA
16-25 August 1996:
 
The Australian Team that returned from these games was hailed as the most successful Australian sporting team ever. Although just 166-strong, the Australians led the medal tally until the final day of competition – ahead of much larger teams from Germany, Great Britain, Spain and host nation USA. We finally finished in second spot behind the USA with 42 gold, 37 silver and 27 bronze; a total of 106 medals. Apart from the medal haul, and the second placing on the tally it was the fact that the team collected medals in 10 of the 13 sports that Australia contested, which delighted the Australian Paralympic Federation (now the Australian Paralympic Committee). At the Games, 3195 athletes competed representing 103 countries.

For a breakdown of the medals won, click here.
 
For a full list of the 1996 Australian Paralympic Team, click here. 
 
 
1992 Barcelona, Spain
3-14 September 1992:
 
The 1992 Barcelona Paralympic Games were held across two cities; Barcelona staged events for the physical and sensory disabilities classes and Madrid for athletes with an intellectual disability. 3020 athletes competed in the Games representing 82 countries.
 
Australia sent a team of 185 athletes, who returned with a haul of 111 medals – 38 gold, 38 silver and 35 bronze. This medal tally placed Australia in first position in Madrid and seventh in Barcelona among the 93 competing nations. The Australian teams won medals in three, of the 12 sports - swimming, athletics and weightlifting.

For a breakdown of the medals won, click here.
 
For a full list of the 1992 Australian Paralympic Team, click here. 
 
 
1988 Seoul, Korea
15-24 October 1988:
 
The Opening Ceremony for the 1988 Summer Paralympic Games was held on 15 October before a crowd of 75,000. A record number of 3,053 competitors from 61 countries took part in the parade. There were 16 events on the program: Archery, Athletics, Basketball, Boccia, Cycling, Fencing, Football, Goalball, Judo, Lawn Bowls, Powerlifting, Shooting, Snooker, Swimming, Table Tennis and Volleyball. Wheelchair Tennis was introduced as a demonstration event.

Australian’s Paralympians won 95 medals, including 23 gold. At the Games, 3053 athletes competed representing 61 countries.

For a breakdown of the medals won, click here.
 
For a full list of the 1988 Australian Paralympic Team, click here.  
 
1984 Stoke Mandeville, UK & New York, USA
16-30 June (NY) and 22 July – 1 August (UK):
 
The 1984 Paralympic Games were spread across two continents, Europe and America. As there was no formal relationship with the organisers of the Olympic Games in Los Angeles the decision was made to split the events. Amputee and les autres athletes, cerebral palsy athletes and visually impaired athletes competed in New York, USA, while athletes with spinal cord disabilities competed in Stoke Mandeville, England.
 
1,800 athletes from 45 countries arrived in New York for competitions from 16 to 30 June, with 900 medals to be won. Funding for the Games came from a combination of private and governmental sources, with the larger part donated by the US Federal Government through its US Information Agency.
 
The Games in Stoke Mandeville, England, were held from 22 July to 1 August. The British Paraplegic Sports Society (BPSS) organized the Games at the Stoke Mandeville Stadium. More than 1,100 athletes from 41 countries competed in 14 events.

The organizers agreed that the Games should in future be held at the same venue, as the success of the Paralympics calls for unified representation and participation. The four international federations— the Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CP-ISRA), the International Blind Sports Association (IBSA), the International Sport Organization for the Disabled (ISOD), and the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation (ISMGF)—came together to form the International Coordinating Committee of World Organizations for the Disabled (ICC). The ICC was to serve as the governing body for the Paralympic Games.

For a breakdown of the medals won, click here.
 
For a full list of the 1984 Australian Paralympic Team, click here.
 
 
1980 Arnhem, Netherlands
Opened 21 June 1980:
 
At the 1980 Arnhem (Netherlands) Games, cerebral palsied athletes were introduced became part of the Paralympic program for the first time. 42 countries took part with a total of 1,973 athletes competing. Of these, 1,055 were wheelchair athletes, 452 were amputee athletes, 341 were visually impaired athletes and 125 were cerebral palsy athletes.
 
With so many different classes, there were more than 3,000 gold, silver and bronze medals to be won. The problem of medal inflation was only to be stabilized after another two Paralympic Games. Still, the athletes clearly deserved these honours for their top performances.
 
The Arnhem Paralympics served to consolidate the sports programs of the four major disability groups, represented by their international sport federations, in one venue for the first time. It also initiated the creation of the International coordinating Committee (ICC), in which each federation was represented. By the end of the 1980s, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) was to emerge as the governing body of the Paralympic Games.

For a breakdown of the medals won, click here.
 
For a full list of the 1980 Australian Paralympic Team, click here. 
 
 
1976 Toronto, Canada
3-11 August 1976:
 
The 1976 Paralympic Games were attended by 40 countries with 1,657 athletes, 253 of whom were women. Several countries had withdrawn from the Games, due to the participation of South Africa during the apartheid era.

The task of organisation became more complicated, simply because more sport classifications were involved than ever before. Also, the accommodation of athletes with differing disabilities posed new challenges. It was becoming clear that an international body was needed, which would oversee and organise a multi-disability Paralympic Games.

More sport classifications included than ever before. For the first time 261 amputees and 187 visually impaired athletes were included in the program.
In track wheelchair races, new distances of 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m were added to the program. Goalball became a medal event after demonstration events took place at Heidelberg (1972) and as did shooting where demonstration events took place in Stoke Mandeville (1952)

For the first time, television coverage of the Paralympics was broadcast daily to more than 600,000 viewers. At the Opening Ceremony 24,000 spectators cheered on the athletes at the Woodbine race track.
 
Australia came in 11th again with 16 Gold, 18 Silver and 8 Bronze (Total:42) which almost doubled Australia’s medal finish in Heidelberg.

For a breakdown of the medals won, click here.
 
For a full list of the 1976 Australian Paralympic Team, click here. 
 
 
1972 Heidelberg, Germany
2-9 August 1972:
 
The 1972 Paralympics in Heidelberg was the 4th Paralympics Games held. They were not held in the same city as the Summer Olympics. The International Stoke Mandeville Games Committee had initially planned that the German Disabled Sports Association (DVS) would stage the Games in Munich following the Olympic Games, which were staged between 26 August and 11 September 1972. However, after the Summer Olympics the Olympic village was to be closed and converted into private apartments, so an alternative had to be found.
 
The city of Heidelberg stepped in and invited the organizers to stage the Games at the University’s Institute for Physical Training. As a result, the Paralympic Games were held BEFORE the Olympic Games in that year. Had the event been staged as initially planned in Munich after the Olympic Games, the tragic massacre during the Munich Olympics may have affected the running of the Paralympic Games in 1972.
 
1,004 athletes from 41 countries took part in the Games.

For a breakdown of the medals won, click here.
 
For a full list of the 1972 Australian Paralympic Team, click here.
 
 
1968 Tel Aviv, Israel
4-13 November 1968:
 
The 1968 Paralympic Games were held from the 4th to 13th November 1968 and officially recognised as the third Summer Paralympic Games. Around 750 athletes competed in the Games, representing 29 countries. In total, there were 181 events contested in 10 sports.

The 1968 Olympic Games were held in Mexico. The organisers of the event had initially planned to stage the Olympic and Paralympic Games back-to-back, however two years out from the Games the Mexican government withdrew their offer to host the Paralympics. Israel then made an offer to host the Games, which was motivated by plans to mark the countries 20th anniversary of independence.

The USA topped the medal count winning 99 medals (33 gold, 27 silver, 39 bronze). The next best was Great Britain with 69 medals, Israel with 62 medals and Australia in fourth winning 38 medals; 15 gold, 16 silver and 7 bronze. 

For a breakdown of the medals won, click here.
 
For a full list of the 1968 Australian Paralympic Team, click here. 
 
 
1964 Tokyo, Japan
4-12 November
 
The opening ceremony for the second official Paralympic Games (first time officially under the name Paralympic) was held on 3 November 1964, in front of approximately 5,000 spectators. 357 athletes took part in the Games, representing 21 countries.
 
Funding for the Games was raised through donations from a range of public and private Japanese businesses. Major contributors were the National and Metropolitan Governments, the Japanese Chamber of Commerce, and the Professional Baseball Association and some 2,000 smaller contributors.
 
In Japan, the Games received significant media coverage contrary to concern the organisers has following the high profile Olympic Games. 

For a breakdown of the medals won, click here.
 
For a full list of the 1964 Australian Paralympic Team, click here. 
 
 
1960 Rome, Italy
19-24 September:
 
The opening ceremony for the first recognised Paralympic Games was held on 18 September 1960, and witnessed a crowd of 5,000 spectators welcome the 400 athletes, from 23 countries.
 
Sir Ludwig Guttmann, the creator of the Stoke Mandeville Games which became the precursor to the Paralympic Games, had a vision of an international games for athletes with a disability, the equivalent of the Olympic Games. This vision began to take shape in 1958 when Guttmann and Professor Antonia Maglio, Director of the Spinal Center at the Italian institute INAIL, had started preparations to stage the International Stoke Mandeville Games in Rome. At the time the Games were still referred to as the 9th Annual International Stoke Mandeville Games. The term "Paralympic Games" was only approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) later in 1984. This was to be the first Games at which the Paralympic Games were to be held in the same venues as the Olympic Games.
 
Despite all good intentions, this Games provided the organisers, athletes and support staff with significant challenges to overcome and learn from. Accessibility for athletes in Wheelchairs had not been considered as part of the village and transport planning. Athletes had to be carried up stairs in the village and transport to venues some distance from the village provided considerable challenges. The organisers enlisted the support of the local military to assist the athletes within the village and competition venues.
 
The sports program consisted of eight sports, all for persons’ with a spinal cord injury, including: Snooker, Fencing (foil or sabre), Javelin and Precision Javelin, Shot Put, Indian Club Throwing (throwing a baton), men’s Wheelchair Basketball and Swimming (Freestyle, Breaststroke and Backstroke). Other events were: Table Tennis (singles and doubles), Archery, Dart Archery and the Pentathlon (Archery, Swimming, Javelin, Shot Put and Club Throwing).

For a breakdown of the medals won, click here.
 
For a full list of the 1960 Australian Paralympic Team, click here.