Wheelchair Basketball

Wheelchair basketball was first introduced in the United States somewhere around the late 1940s. It was developed by injured servicemen from World War II who were the former players of basketball when they were bodily-abled. They introduced the wheelchair version of basketball in order to continue playing the game. Today, the game is accepted worldwide by para-athletes with a slight variation from the original one so as to ease the game for the people on wheelchairs. The official body that governs the sport at the global level is the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation. The sport is also recognized by the Paralympics Committee (IPC).

The primary object of the game is to score more baskets than the opponent’s team. The team with the maximum no. of baskets by the finish of the time wins the game.

General

Wheelchair basketball was first competed at two of the USA World War II veterans' organisation clinics; Corona Naval Station, California, and Framingham, Massachusetts, in 1945.

Freely, in 1948 British war veterans began playing wheelchair netball under Dr Ludwig Guttmann (GER) at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

The first national wheelchair basketball competition was held in Illinois, USA, with six groups in 1949. Around the same time, the National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA) was framed in the USA.

The Pan Am Jets of USA conveyed wheelchair basketball to Europe when they were welcomed to participate at the International Stoke Mandeville Games in 1955, at first making due with wheelchair netball. After ruling the challenge, their execution started the change from wheelchair netball to wheelchair basketball for future Games.

Wheelchair basketball was one of the games at the debut Rome 1960 Paralympic Games.