Paralympic movement was born in Stoke Mandeville , outside London , in 1948 . The first wheelchair athletes were able to compete at the 1960 Olympics and Paralympics. In an echo of the first , post-World War II Games , injured veterans are among the athletes . ` The way I think of it now is , it 's probably the best thing that 's ever happened to me , '' he said of his injury . They include a U.S. naval officer blinded in Afghanistan and a Briton who lost an arm in Iraq .
Paralympic movement was born in Stoke Mandeville , outside London , in 1948 . The first wheelchair athletes were able to compete at the 1960 Olympics and Paralympics. In an echo of the first , post-World War II Games , injured veterans are among the athletes . They include a U.S. naval officer blinded in Afghanistan and a Briton who lost an arm in Iraq .