1962 Commonwealth Paraplegic Games

I Commonwealth Paraplegic Games

Host city	Perth, Western Australia
Nations	9
Athletes	93
Sport	14
Events	88
Opening	10 November
Closing	17 November
Opened by	Sir Charles Gairdner, Governor of Western Australia
Main venue	Royal Agricultural Showground
II Kingston →

The First Commonwealth Paraplegic Games were held in Perth, Western Australia, from 10 to 17 November 1962. These Games preceded the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games which were held in Perth from 22 November to 1 December of that year.^[1] The Commonwealth Paraplegic Games were conceived by George Bedbrook after Perth won the right to host the Commonwealth Games. Great support was received from Royal Perth Hospital, a leading spinal rehabilitation centre in Australia.

These games raised the profile of paraplegic (spinal cord and polio) athletes in Australia, particularly Western Australia. The chairman of the Organising Committee, Hugh Leslie, who had lost a leg in World War II, gave a speech aimed to change public perceptions about disabilities by addressing the power of language. These games, he told the audience, "were designed to prove to the public that the person who was bodily handicapped was not a cripple, and he hoped that that horrible word would eventually be wiped out of use. He had a slogan which he hoped would be adopted by all disabled: 'I can, I will'".^[2]

Leading officials such as Bedbrook, the founder of the Stoke Mandeville Games, were impressed with the spectator turnout. Although the standards were lower than those of the Stoke Mandeville Games, there were some outstanding individual performances and several world records were broken.