The
World Wheelchair Games formally known as
Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Games or
Stoke Mandeville Games, which gave birth to the
Paralympics is an annual event held in
Stoke Mandeville[?] (except in the year when the
Summer Paralympics[?] are held and in
1999 when held in
New Zealand). The Games started in
1948 by Sir
Ludwig Guttmann[?] who organized a sporting competition involving
World War II veterans with
spinal cord injury[?] in
1952 the
Netherlands joined in the games creating the first international games for the disabled.