The Value and Status of the IWAS Games to the Paralympic Movement
As the founders of the Paralympic Games (previously known as the International Stoke Mandeville Games and initiated in 1960 under the Governance of the International Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Games Federation (ISMGF), becoming ISMWSF in 1989 and then IWAS in 2004 (an amalgamation of wheelchair and amputee sports) has taken pleasure in maintaining its role as a Paralympic partner despite transfers of governance in certain aspects and continues to provide a multi-sport qualification opportunity for the movement.
Our history governing major international sporting events and working with Local Organising Committees (LOCs) is now nearly 60 years old. Originally the international Stoke Mandeville Games were traditionally held at Stoke Mandeville, the recognised and renowned birthplace of the Paralympic movement. These happened annually and in the fourth year of the cycle were taken on by the countries that were also holding the Olympic Games and so the Paralympic Games were born under our governance in 1960, creating the blueprint for the future. These original blueprints became the foundation on which the Paralympic Games and Paralympic movement partners built their own forms, rules and regulations for present day successes.