| Npc: | GBR |
| Npcname: | British Paralympic Association |
| Games: | Summer Paralympics |
| Year: | 1968 |
| Flagcaption: | Flag of the United Kingdom |
| Location: | Tel Aviv |
| Competitors: | 75 |
| Sports: | 10 |
| Rank: | 2 |
| Gold: | 29 |
| Silver: | 20 |
| Bronze: | 20 |
| Appearances: | auto |
Great Britain was one of twenty-eight nations to send athletes to the 1968 Summer Paralympics in Tel Aviv, Israel from November 4 to 13, 1968.[1] [2] The team finished second in the medal table and won sixty-nine medals: twenty-nine gold, twenty silver and twenty bronze.[3] Athletes from the whole United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, were able to compete for the team. Seventy-five British athletes took part in the Games; fifty-one men and twenty-four women.[1]
The Paralympics groups athletes' disabilities into one of five disability categories; amputation, the condition may be congenital or sustained through injury or illness; cerebral palsy; wheelchair athletes, there is often overlap between this and other categories; visual impairment, including blindness; Les autres, any physical disability that does not fall strictly under one of the other categories, for example dwarfism or multiple sclerosis.[4] [5] Each Paralympic sport then has its own classifications, dependent on the specific physical demands of competition. Events are given a code, made of numbers and letters, describing the type of event and classification of the athletes competing.[6]
| Medal | Name | Sport | Event | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men's St. Nicholas round cervical | ||||
| Women's St. Nicholas round cervical | ||||
| Women's 60m wheelchair B | ||||
| Women's 60m wheelchair C | ||||
| Women's slalom C | ||||
| Women's pentathlon complete | ||||
| Margaret Gibbs | Women's pentathlon incomplete | |||
| Men's pairs | ||||
| Women's pairs | ||||
| Women's singles | ||||
| Men's open | ||||
| Men's 25m freestyle class 2 incomplete | ||||
| Men's 25m backstroke class 2 complete | ||||
| Men's 25m breaststroke class 2 complete | ||||
| W. Thornton | Men's 50m breaststroke class 3 complete | |||
| Women's 50m freestyle class 3 complete | ||||
| Women's 25m backstroke class 1 incomplete | ||||
| Women's 25m backstroke class 2 incomplete | ||||
| Women's 25m backstroke class 3 complete | ||||
| Women's 50m backstroke class 3 incomplete | ||||
| Bellamy | Women's 50m backstroke class 5 (cauda equina) | |||
| Women's 50m breaststroke class 3 complete | ||||
| Bellamy | Women's 50m breaststroke class 5 (cauda equina) | |||
| Margaret Gibbs | Women's 3x25m individual medley open | |||
| Men's singles B | ||||
| Men's doubles A2 | ||||
| Women's doubles C | ||||
| T. Palmer | Men's middleweight | |||
| Women's foil team | ||||
| Men's albion round team open | ||||
| Men's FITA round team open | ||||
| Men's javelin throw D | ||||
| Clark | Men's pentathlon incomplete | |||
| Women's novices 60m wheelchair dash B | ||||
| Women's club throw A | ||||
| Women's discus throw A | ||||
| Men's singles | ||||
| Men's 25m freestyle class 2 complete | ||||
| W. Thornton | Men's 50m freestyle class 3 complete | |||
| Men's 100m freestyle open | ||||
| A. West | Men's 25m backstroke class 1 complete | |||
| Men's 50m backstroke class 4 complete | ||||
| Men's 25m breaststroke class 2 incomplete | ||||
| Women's 100m breaststroke open | ||||
| Men's doubles B | ||||
| Women's singles C | ||||
| Ruth Brooks Levers | Women's doubles A2 | |||
| Women's doubles B | ||||
| R. Rowe | Men's heavyweight | |||
| Men's St. Nicholas round cervical | ||||
| Men's 100m wheelchair A | ||||
| Men's javelin throw A | ||||
| Men's pentathlon incomplete | ||||
| Women's pentathlon incomplete | ||||
| A. West | Men's 25m freestyle class 1 complete | |||
| Men's 25m backstroke class 2 incomplete | ||||
| W. Thornton | Men's 50m backstroke class 3 complete | |||
| Men's 50m backstroke class 4 incomplete | ||||
| Bellamy | Women's 50m freestyle class 5 cauda equina | |||
| Margaret Gibbs | Women's 100m freestyle open | |||
| S. Jones | Women's 25m backstroke class 2 complete | |||
| Women's team | Women's 3x50m medley relay open | |||
| Men's singles B | ||||
| Women's singles B | ||||
| Women's doubles B | ||||
| Men's team | Men's tournament | |||
| Men's épée team | ||||
| Men's foil team | ||||
| Women's foil individual |
| Medals by sport | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | bgcolor=#f7f6a8 | bgcolor=#dce5e5 | bgcolor=#ffdab9 | Total | |||
| Swimming | 13 | 7 | 8 | 28 | |||
| Athletics | 5 | 5 | 4 | 14 | |||
| Table tennis | 3 | 4 | 3 | 10 | |||
| Lawn bowls | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 | |||
| Archery | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | |||
| Weightlifting | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |||
| Wheelchair Fencing | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | |||
| Snooker | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||
| Wheelchair Basketball | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Total | 29 | 20 | 20 | 69 | |||
See main article: Dartchery at the 1968 Summer Paralympics.
The only dartchery event at the Games was the mixed pairs event which took a knockout format. Two British pairs entered the competition: Nicholson and Taylor beat a team from Jamaica in the first round but lost in the second round to the Swiss pair; Robertson and Todd reached the third round where they lost to Italians Francesco Deiana and Raimondo Longhi.[7]
See main article: Snooker at the 1968 Summer Paralympics.
One snooker event was contested at the Games, the men's open event. Keaton was eliminated in the first round by Jimmy Gibson of Ireland. Michael Shelton had wins over Goll, of Austria, and Newton from Australia to earn a place in the final against Gibson. Shelton defeated Gibson to take gold and the Irishman won the silver medal.[8]
See main article: Swimming at the 1968 Summer Paralympics. Twenty-nine British swimmers competed at the Games winning twenty-eight medals: thirteen gold, seven silver and eight bronze. Forder won three gold medals in women's 50 m class 3 complete events, finishing first in the backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.[9] [10] [11] Six other swimmers won multiple medals for Great Britain; Bellamy won two gold medals and a bronze in the women's class 5 (cauda equina); Britton, a gold, silver and bronze in men's class 2 incomplete events; Ellis, two golds and a silver in men's class 2 complete; Gibbs who won gold in the women's 3×25 m individual medley open and bronze in the 100 m freestyle open; Thornton who took a gold, silver and bronze in men's class 3 complete events; and West who won backstroke silver and freestyle bronze for men's class 1 complete events. Ingrams won gold in the women's 25 m backstroke class 1 incomplete in a world record time; White and Rosaleen Gallagher of Ireland won the silver and bronze medals in the event.[12]
See main article: Table tennis at the 1968 Summer Paralympics.
Twenty five British players entered table tennis events and won ten medals; three gold, 4 silver and four bronze.[13] In the women's doubles C event Bryant and Barnard won the gold medal after beating pairs from the United States, Jamaica, Belgium and Australia.[14]