Rome’s other Games

Ludwig Guttmann’s Stoke Mandeville Games had been a hospital courtyard. In 1960, 400 athletes from 23 countries compete in Rome after the Olympics. Wheelchair events, a flag, a closing. The word Paralympics will take time to stick. The idea does not.

Later Games grow into a second, parallel spectacle with their own stars. The relationship with the Olympics is political, financial, and sometimes grudging. Rome is the proof that a multi-sport festival for disabled athletes can share a host city.

Every later argument about inclusion in elite sport has an ancestor in those Roman venues. The first job was simply to exist on the calendar.