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1984 Summer Paralympics
The 1984 International Games for the Disabled, commonly known as the 1984 Summer Paralympics, were the seventh Paralympic Games to be held. There were two separate competitions: one in Stoke Mandeville, England, United Kingdom for wheelchair athletes with spinal cord injuries and the other at the Mitchel Athletic Complex and Hofstra University on Long Island, New York, United States for wheelchair and ambulatory athletes with cerebral palsy, amputees, and les autres [the others] (conditions as well as blind and visually impaired athletes). Stoke Mandeville had been the location of the Stoke Mandeville Games from 1948 onwards, seen as the precursors to the Paralympic Games, as the 9th International Stoke Mandeville Games in Rome in 1960 are now recognised as the first Summer Paralympics.
As with the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles, the Soviet Union and other communist countries, except China, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Yugoslavia, did not participate in the Paralympic Games. The Soviet Union did not participate in the Paralympics at the time, arguing that they have no disabled people (called "invalids" by Soviet officials) in the country. A delegation of 18 blind Soviet athletes registered for the International Games for the Disabled, but withdrew its participation weeks before the opening ceremony due to the Olympic boycott. The USSR made its Paralympic debut in 1988, during Perestroika.
The 1984 Paralympic Games were the last Summer Games not to be staged by the same host city as the Olympic Games. Seoul hosted both events in 1988, a pattern maintained thereafter.
Since the 1960 inception of the international event that retroactively became known as the Paralympic Games, the organizers had held the event in the same country as the Summer Olympics every four years, except when they were prevented from doing so by the national government (Mexico in 1968 and the Soviet Union in 1980). With the selection of the United States as the host of the 1984 Summer Olympics, it was expected that the U.S. would also host the Paralympics, but the two events were not officially connected at the time.
The National Wheelchair Athletic Association (NWAA) was responsible for finding an institution in the United States that would host and financially sponsor the Paralympic Games. By June 1981, the choice of a host institution had been narrowed to three finalists: the Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood, California, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Washington in Seattle. Another proposal was made by the University of Texas at Arlington, but this was dropped due to a lack of clarity about the source of funding for the Games. In December, the University of Illinois was chosen as the host for the event.
Organizers approached the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) to seek its support for the event. Instead, the USOC demanded that the NWAA stop using the term "Paralympics". The Amateur Sports Act of 1978 had given the USOC exclusive control over the use of the term "Olympics" in sporting competitions in the United States, and the USOC had previously sued events like the Gay Olympics in San Francisco to stop them from using the name. The name of the Illinois event was changed to the World Wheelchair Games. The change of name contributed to the NWAA's difficulties in raising funds for the event, as the name "Paralympics" was familiar to many but "World Wheelchair Games" was not.
The University of Illinois, not wanting to take on debt to host the Games, gave the NWAA a deadline of January 31, 1984, to raise $2 million or the event would be cancelled. Despite several nationwide fundraising efforts, including a General Mills sponsorship which encouraged donations on the back of every box of Wheaties, the fundraising goal was not met. The following month, the university terminated its contract with the World Wheelchair Games, leaving the event without a host. The organizers contacted the IOC and the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee for emergency support, but without success.
On March 4, 1984, the Executive Committee of the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation (ISMGF), which had organized the Paralympics before 1976, announced that it would host a replacement event if the problems in Illinois could not be resolved. At the time, the ISMGF held an edition of the International Stoke Mandeville Games every summer except in Paralympic years, so this meant hosting an extra event in 1984.
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1984 Summer Paralympics
The 1984 International Games for the Disabled, commonly known as the 1984 Summer Paralympics, were the seventh Paralympic Games to be held. There were two separate competitions: one in Stoke Mandeville, England, United Kingdom for wheelchair athletes with spinal cord injuries and the other at the Mitchel Athletic Complex and Hofstra University on Long Island, New York, United States for wheelchair and ambulatory athletes with cerebral palsy, amputees, and les autres [the others] (conditions as well as blind and visually impaired athletes). Stoke Mandeville had been the location of the Stoke Mandeville Games from 1948 onwards, seen as the precursors to the Paralympic Games, as the 9th International Stoke Mandeville Games in Rome in 1960 are now recognised as the first Summer Paralympics.
As with the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles, the Soviet Union and other communist countries, except China, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Yugoslavia, did not participate in the Paralympic Games. The Soviet Union did not participate in the Paralympics at the time, arguing that they have no disabled people (called "invalids" by Soviet officials) in the country. A delegation of 18 blind Soviet athletes registered for the International Games for the Disabled, but withdrew its participation weeks before the opening ceremony due to the Olympic boycott. The USSR made its Paralympic debut in 1988, during Perestroika.
The 1984 Paralympic Games were the last Summer Games not to be staged by the same host city as the Olympic Games. Seoul hosted both events in 1988, a pattern maintained thereafter.
Since the 1960 inception of the international event that retroactively became known as the Paralympic Games, the organizers had held the event in the same country as the Summer Olympics every four years, except when they were prevented from doing so by the national government (Mexico in 1968 and the Soviet Union in 1980). With the selection of the United States as the host of the 1984 Summer Olympics, it was expected that the U.S. would also host the Paralympics, but the two events were not officially connected at the time.
The National Wheelchair Athletic Association (NWAA) was responsible for finding an institution in the United States that would host and financially sponsor the Paralympic Games. By June 1981, the choice of a host institution had been narrowed to three finalists: the Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood, California, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Washington in Seattle. Another proposal was made by the University of Texas at Arlington, but this was dropped due to a lack of clarity about the source of funding for the Games. In December, the University of Illinois was chosen as the host for the event.
Organizers approached the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) to seek its support for the event. Instead, the USOC demanded that the NWAA stop using the term "Paralympics". The Amateur Sports Act of 1978 had given the USOC exclusive control over the use of the term "Olympics" in sporting competitions in the United States, and the USOC had previously sued events like the Gay Olympics in San Francisco to stop them from using the name. The name of the Illinois event was changed to the World Wheelchair Games. The change of name contributed to the NWAA's difficulties in raising funds for the event, as the name "Paralympics" was familiar to many but "World Wheelchair Games" was not.
The University of Illinois, not wanting to take on debt to host the Games, gave the NWAA a deadline of January 31, 1984, to raise $2 million or the event would be cancelled. Despite several nationwide fundraising efforts, including a General Mills sponsorship which encouraged donations on the back of every box of Wheaties, the fundraising goal was not met. The following month, the university terminated its contract with the World Wheelchair Games, leaving the event without a host. The organizers contacted the IOC and the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee for emergency support, but without success.
On March 4, 1984, the Executive Committee of the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation (ISMGF), which had organized the Paralympics before 1976, announced that it would host a replacement event if the problems in Illinois could not be resolved. At the time, the ISMGF held an edition of the International Stoke Mandeville Games every summer except in Paralympic years, so this meant hosting an extra event in 1984.