1976 Summer Paralympics

V Paralympic Games
Host city	Toronto, Canada
Nations participating	32
Athletes participating	1,657 (1,404 men, 253 women)
Events	447 in 13 sports
Opening ceremony	August 3
Closing ceremony	August 11
Officially opened by	Kevin Cheuk
Paralympic Stadium	Woodbine Racetrack Centennial Park Stadium
Summer:
<  Heidelberg 1972 Arnhem 1980  >
Winter:
<  Örnsköldsvik 1976 Geilo 1980  >

The 1976 Summer Paralympics (branded as Torontolympiad - 1976 Olympiad for the Physically Disabled) were the fifth Paralympic Games to be held. They were held in Toronto, in the province of Ontario, Canada from August 3 to 11, 1976.

This marked the first time that Canada hosted the Summer Paralympics, which has now been followed by Canada's first Winter Paralympics, the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver. The 1976 Summer Olympics were also hosted by Canada, in Montreal.

Context

This was also the first time global politics interfered with the Paralympic Games. "The problem stemmed from the logic that admitting a team from South Africa was to give implicit approval for its government's attitude towards segregation and racism." Although the South African team at the time was a multi-racial one, the Canadian government withdrew its half million dollar contribution and "matching amounts of funds were likely to be pulled out by the metropolitan government".^[1]

Two groups, both with the same President - Ludwig Guttmann - were involved in the decision-making: the International Sports Organisation for the Disabled and the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation. Guttman and Bob Jackson, (Chairman of the Organising Committee) worked to convince the governments to honour their promises of support and were largely successful. Nevertheless, a number of teams withdrew, following on from the Montreal boycott by 25 countries, and were threatened with exclusion from future events. Later, efforts were made to develop a joint policy with the International Olympic Committee.^[1]

Rhodesia was allowed to participate, despite their being banned from the that year's Olympics.^[2]

Venues

The opening of the 1976 games were held at Woodbine Race Track in north Etobicoke.

There was no athletes village, so the athletes were housed at York University (Keele campus), University of Toronto (Erindale?) and the CNIB (national headquarters in Toronto). Closing ceremonies and outdoor events (mainly track and field) took place at Centennial Park Stadium. Centennial Gymnasium and Centennial Park's Olympic Pool were the other venues (for indoor and swimming events respectively).

Sports

At the 1976 games, amputees and visually impaired athletes competed for the first time; previous editions of the Paralympic Games had included only wheelchair athletes. Within the sport of athletics, new wheelchair racing distances of 200 m, 400 m, 800 m and 1500 m were added. Shooting and goalball, both previously demonstration events, were included as official medal sports.^[3]

• Archery
• Athletics
• Dartchery
• Goalball
• Lawn bowls
• Shooting
• Snooker
• Swimming
• Table tennis
• Volleyball
• Weightlifting
• Wheelchair basketball
• Wheelchair fencing

Medal table

The top 10 NPCs by number of gold medals are listed below. The host nation, Canada, is highlighted.

1	United States	66	44	44	154
2	Netherlands	45	25	14	84
3	Israel	40	13	16	69
4	West Germany	37	34	26	97
5	Great Britain	29	29	36	94
6	Canada	25	26	26	77
7	Poland	24	17	12	53
8	France	23	21	14	58
9	Sweden	22	27	24	73
10	Austria	17	16	17	50

Participating delegations

Forty delegations took part in the Toronto Paralympics.^[4]

South Africa was competing at the Paralympics for the fourth time. Although banned from the Olympic Games due to its policy of apartheid, it was not banned from the Paralympics until 1980, and Canada, as host country, did not object to its participation. These were, however, to be its last Paralympics before the dismantling of apartheid; The Netherlands, as hosts of the 1980 Games, declared South Africa's further participation "undesirable".^[5][6]

See also

• Canada at the Paralympics
• World Paralympiads in Canada
  • 1976 Summer Paralympics – Toronto
  • 2010 Winter Paralympics – Vancouver—Whistler
• 1976 Winter Paralympics
• 1976 Summer Olympics

References

v t e Paralympic Games Charter Host cities IPC NPCs Medal tables Medalists Sports Symbols Summer Games Rome 1960 Tokyo 1964 Tel Aviv 1968 Heidelberg 1972 Toronto 1976 Arnhem 1980 New York/Stoke Mandeville 1984 Seoul 1988 Barcelona/Madrid 1992 Atlanta 1996 Sydney 2000 Athens 2004 Beijing 2008 London 2012 Rio de Janeiro 2016 Tokyo 2020 Winter Games Örnsköldsvik 1976 Geilo 1980 Innsbruck 1984 Innsbruck 1988 Albertville 1992 Lillehammer 1994 Nagano 1998 Salt Lake City 2002 Turin 2006 Vancouver 2010 Sochi 2014 Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Games Youth Olympic Games Ancient Olympic Games