HISTORY
Founded in
1956 as the National Wheelchair Athletic Association, the name
of the organization was changed in 1994 to
Wheelchair Sports, USA, in 2009 to Wheelchair
and Ambulatory Sports USA and in 2014 to Adaptive
Sports USA to
better reflect the organization's mission and goals.
The last
change in 2014 recognized the national need for one organization
to support sporting events for athletes with all physical disabilities.
Europe's
first organized wheelchair sports program was introduced in 1948
by well-known neurosurgeon, Dr. Ludwig Guttman, founder of the
Spinal Injury Center in Stoke-Mandeville, England. The first
Stoke-Mandeville Games included only a handful of participants
(26), and few events (shotput, javelin, club throw, and
archery), but growth in both the number of events and
participants came quickly. In 1952, a team from the Netherlands
was invited to compete with the British team. This was the first
International Stoke-Mandeville Games, an event that has been
held annually ever since.
FOUNDED IN
1956 Wheelchair and
Ambulatory Sports, USA,
now in its 54th year, was founded in New York in 1956 in
conjunction with the first National Wheelchair Games at Adelphi
College. The initial impetus to organize Wheelchair Sports, USA,
grew out of the interests of athletes with disabilities - many
of whom were veterans of World War II. They wanted to
participate in sports other than basketball, which had seen
rapid growth in the early 1950's through team s sponsored by
veterans hospitals and other rehabilitation agencies. General
Omar N. Bradley was one of the leaders of the early efforts to
develop wheelchair sports programs, principally for servicemen
injured during the war. In the early days, many wheelchair
basketball players saw participation in individual wheelchair
sports as supplementary training for their primary interest in
basketball. However, the Wheelchair Sports, USA, program
appealed to even greater numbers of at hletes with disabilities
because it was able to incorporate women and quadriplegics
(those with paralysis in upper as well as lower extremities);
two populations which basketball could not reasonable
accommodate at that time.
THE EARLY YEARS
The administrative expenses of
Wheelchair Sports, USA, were underwritten for many years by
the Bulova Watch Company, the Bulova family, and the Bulova
School of Watchmaking, whose executive director, Benjamin
Lipton, served as Wheelchair Sports, USA, Chairman for the
organization's first twenty-five years. The primary focus of
Wheelchair Sports, USA, in the early years was on organizing
annual national championship competitions and fielding USA teams
for international competition. USA teams have competed in world
championship competitions annually since 1960 in such countries
as England, Israel, the Netherlands, Japan, Argentina, France,
and a host of other nations. Since the early 1970's additional
efforts were undertaken to organize Wheelchair Sports, USA,
programs on more local and regional levels throughout the United
States. Today, Wheelchair Sports, USA, is organized
geographically into fourteen regional associations, each
responsible for developing local wheelchair sports programs and
for conducting qualifying meets for the National Wheel chair
Games.
RECOGNITION BY THE U.S. OLYMPIC COMMITTEE AND THE OLYMPIC GAMES
The national offices of Wheelchair Sports, USA, remained in New
York for twenty-six years before moving to Colorado Springs in
1982 to join the many other sports organizations comprising the
U.S. Olympic Committee. The move to Colorado Springs and
recognition by the U.S. Olympic Committee reflects a principal
concern of Wheelchair Sports, USA, to provide athletic
experiences for athletes with disabilities paralleling those of
the able-bodied, from novice through elite levels. With the move
to Colorado Springs, the first professional staff in Wheelchair
Sports, USA's history was hired to administer the many ongoing
programs as well as to develop new initiatives to promote
wheelchair sports. Wheelchair Sports, USA, has realized major
accomplishment in these past years. Wheelchair Sports, USA,
athletes on several occasions have traveled to Colorado Springs
and the U.S. Olympic Training Center to train alongside their
able-bodied counterparts preparing for International level
competition. On August 11, 1984, wheelchair athletes made their
formal debut in the Olympic Games with the first-ever exhibition
wheelchair track events held in the Los Angeles Memorial
Coliseum. In 1988, a wheelchair athlete became the first woman
to receive a gold medal in the Olympic and Paralympic Games
(disabled Olympic Games). Wheelchair Sports, USA, played a principal role in
conceiving and organizing the events with the Los Angeles
Olympic Organizing Committee and has continued to play a major
role in each Summer Olympic Competition since that time.
DEVELOPMENT OF PROGRAM FOR DISABLED YOUTHS
Wheelchair Sports, USA, has expanded its offerings to junior
athletes which make up 30% of the total membership. Regional
associations now conduct annual local competitions for youths
aged five to eighteen. The WSUSA Junior National Championships,
the organizations largest annual event, was first held in July
1984. This event provided the first national program of
competitions for junior athletes.
AN ASSOCIATION LED BY WHEELCHAIR ATHLETES
From its earliest beginnings to the present day,
Wheelchair and Ambulatory Sports, USA, has been directed and developed by
wheelchair athletes and wheelchair sports enthusiasts
themselves, individuals with a first-hand understanding to the
values of participation. By and large, the needs of the
wheelchair athlete are not addressed by the vast network of
athletic programs available to able-bodied persons through our
educational system and community recreation agencies. Instead,
the wheelchair athlete has, with rare exceptions, developed his
or her own resources and sports opportunities, from rules and
governing structure (i.e., Wheelchair Sports, USA) to funding
travel, equipment and other expenses of competition. Wheelchair
sports enthusiasts are involved at all levels of decision-making
in the Wheelchair Sports, USA, and its constituent associations.
Wheelchair Sports, USA, has remained essentially an
all-volunteer organization, drawing on the energy and commitment
of the people who also benefit from its programs. Wheelchair
sports have also been described as the most authentic of sports
enterprises because the athletes compete and develop their own
opportunities for the intrinsic values of participation - and
not for the promise of professional contracts or financial
reward. The dreams of individual athletes have been made
possible through the efforts and dedication of pioneers such as
Dr. Guttman and Lipton, and the countless other organizers,
volunteers, friends, and supporters of wheelchair sports
throughout the United States and the rest of the world. With the
continuing increase in public awareness, the future of
wheelchair athletic competition is indeed bright.
THE PRESENT
In 2009 after long understanding that sporting events should
be available and supported for all athletes with physical
disabilities WSUSA officially changed its name to Wheelchair and
Ambulatory Sports USA. This was a change in name and not
in mission for the organization had welcomed Blind, CP and
Amputee athletes to it's Junior competition for the past 5
years. |
