| World Abilitysport Games | |
| Sport: | Parasports |
| Founded: | 1948 |
| Continent: | International (IPC) |
The World Abilitysport Games (known as the IWAS World Games before 2023) are a parasports multi-sport event for athletes who use wheelchairs or are amputees. Organized by World Abilitysport (formerly IWAS), the Games are a successor to the original Stoke Mandeville Games founded in 1948 by Ludwig Guttmann, and the International Stoke Mandeville Games—the first international sporting competition for athletes with disabilities, and the forerunner to the modern Paralympic Games.
The 1960, 1964, 1968, and 1972 editions were held in the same host country as the Summer Olympics; they were later retroactively recognized as the first four Paralympic Games. After the Paralympics expanded to include events for disability classifications other than wheelchairs, the ISMG for wheelchair athletes continued to be hosted in Stoke Mandeville, and later other countries, in non-Paralympic years.
The event was first established in 1948 as the Stoke Mandeville Games by neurologist Ludwig Guttmann, who organized a sporting competition involving World War II veterans with spinal cord injuries at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital rehabilitation facility in Aylesbury, England, taking place concurrently with the first post-war Olympic Games in London. In 1952, the Netherlands joined in the event, creating the first international sports competition for athletes with a disability, after which it was renamed the International Stoke Mandeville Games.[1]
In 1960 and subsequent Olympic years, the ISMG began to increasingly be hosted in the same country (if not the same host city) as their respective Olympics, with all other editions remaining in Stoke Mandeville. The Games were also increasingly referred to as "Paralympics", originally in reference to paraplegia, but later officially referring to an event operating in parallel with the Olympic movement. While the Paralympic Games evolved to include athletes from all disability groups beginning in 1976, the Stoke Mandeville Games continued to be organized as a multi-sport event for wheelchair athletes in non-Paralympic years. Games were held annually in Aylesbury under the direction of the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation (ISMGF), which later became the International Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Sports Federation (ISMWSF).
In 2003, the Games were combined with a competition for amputee athletes organized by the International Sports Organization for the Disabled (ISOD). In 2004, ISMWSF and ISOD merged to create the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation (IWAS). The Games were subsequently renamed the "World Wheelchair and Amputee Games" in 2005, and later renamed to simply the "IWAS World Games".
The inaugural competition, initially named "Stoke Mandeville Games for the Paralyzed" in 1948, was just named "Stoke Mandeville Games" the next year, before becoming the "International Stoke Mandeville Games" (ISMG) in 1952.
Beginning in 1960 during Summer Olympic years, the ISMG were held in the same host city as the Summer Olympics. These particular editions of the Games were retroactively recognised as being the first four Paralympic Games. The Games were otherwise hosted in Stoke Mandeville in all other years. Beginning in 1976, the Paralympic Games began hosting events for amputees and the visually impaired; at this point, the Paralympics were no longer credited as being editions of the ISMG, and thus went on hiatus during Paralympic years.
| Year | Name of the event | Host | Annotation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | Stoke Mandeville Games for the Paralyzed[2] | July 28, 1948, archery competition, 16 competitors[3] (14 men, 2 women[4]) | ||
| 1949 | Stoke Mandeville Games | Six teams competed.'wheelchair netball' (later wheelchair basketball) was introduced.[5] | ||
| 1950 | Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1951 | Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1952 | 1st International Stoke Mandeville Games[6] | A Dutch team participated, making it an international event | ||
| 1953 | 2nd International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1954 | 3rd International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1955 | 4th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1956 | 5th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1957 | 6th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1958 | 7th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1959 | 8th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1960 | 9th International Stoke Mandeville Games[7] | 400 competitors from 23 countries (10 with medalists) in 8 sports. 1st edition occurring outside UK, in the same host city as the Summer Olympic Games, in the hope of becoming better internationally recognized and integrated with other national and international sports federations to organize what will become later the Paralympic Games. | ||
| 1961 | 10th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1962 | 11th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1963 | 12th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1964 | 13th International Stoke Mandeville Games[8] | |||
| 1965 | 14th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1966 | 15th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1967 | 16th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1968 | 17th International Stoke Mandeville Games[9] | |||
| 1969 | 18th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1970 | 19th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1971 | 20th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1972 | 1972 Summer Paralympics[10] | |||
| 1973 | 22nd International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1974 | 23rd International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1975 | 24th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1977 | 25th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1978 | 26th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1979 | 27th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1981 | 28th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1982 | 29th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1983 | 30th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1985 | 31st International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1986 | 32nd International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1987 | 33rd International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1989 | 34th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1990 | 35th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1991 | 36th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1993 | 37th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1994 | 38th International Stoke Mandeville Games | |||
| 1995 | 39th International Stoke Mandeville Games |
From 1997, the International Stoke Mandeville Games became the "World Wheelchair Games"; it was later renamed "World Wheelchair and Amputee Games" from 2005, "IWAS World Games" in 2009, and "World Abilitysport Games" in 2023.
| Year | Name of the event | Host | Annotation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | World Wheelchair Games | |||
| 1998 | World Wheelchair Games | |||
| 1999 | World Wheelchair Games | |||
| 2001 | World Wheelchair Games[11] | |||
| 2002 | World Wheelchair Games | |||
| 2003 | World Wheelchair Games | |||
| 2005 | World Wheelchair and Amputee Games[12] | Over 700 athletes from 44 nations. Five events: track and field, table tennis, archery, shooting, and billiards.[13] | ||
| 2006 | World Wheelchair and Amputee Games | |||
| 2007 | World Wheelchair and Amputee Games[14] | |||
| 2009 | IWAS World Games[15] [16] [17] [18] | |||
| 2011 | IWAS World Games | December 1–10, 2011[19] | ||
| 2013 | IWAS World Games | |||
| 2015 | IWAS World Games | |||
| 2017 | IWAS World Games | |||
| 2019 | IWAS World Games | |||
| IWAS World Games | Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand | Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[20] | ||
| IWAS World Games | Vila Real de Santo António, Portugal | Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[21] | ||
| 2022 | IWAS World Games[22] | Vila Real de Santo António, Portugal | Originally scheduled to be hosted by Sochi, Russia, IWAS stripped Sochi of its hosting rights in March 2022 in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and banned Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from participating.[23] The Games were relocated to Vila Real de Santo António, Portugal, which was originally scheduled to host the Games in 2021.[24] | |
| 2023 | World Abilitysport Games[25] | Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand[26] [27] |
For some years now, the IWAS Federation has hosted junior competitions, which were named IWAS World Junior Games by 2015. Since 2016 they are called IWAS Under 23 World Games and will only be played in years with even numbers.[28]
| No. | Year | Dates | Host City | Venue | Events | Results List | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2005 | 6–7 July |  Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | Result list | |||
| 2 | 2006 | 14–16 July |  Dublin, Ireland | Result list | |||
| 3 | 2007 | 4–6 April | Germiston Sports Precinct | Result list | |||
| 4 | 2008 | 18–27 July |  Piscataway, New Jersey, United States | Results | |||
| 5 | 2009 | 16–19 July | Nottwil, Switzerland | SPZ Nottwil | Result list | ||
| 6 | 2010 | 19–26 August |  Olomouc, Czech Republic | Results | |||
| 7 | 2011 | 14–21 April | Dubai, United Arab Emirates | Result List | |||
| 8 | 2012 | 19–21 July | Olomouc, Czech Republic | Results | |||
| 9 | 2013 | 14–21 August | Mayaguez, Puerto Rico | Central American Stadium | Ergebnisliste | ||
| 10 | 2014 | 3–7 August | Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom | Results | |||
| 11 | 2015 | 2–8 July | Stadskanaal, Netherlands | Sportpark Stadskanaal | Ergebnisliste | ||
| 12 | 2016 | 29 June–3 July | Prague, Czech Republic | Results |
In 2024, World Abilitysport announced its inaugural Guttmann Games. Named after the founder of the Stoke Mandeville Games, the event will take place in Stoke Mandeville in July 2024, and feature competition in sports not on the Paralympic programme. It is scheduled to feature para dance sport and power hockey competitions, as well as wheelchair cricket as a demonstration sport.[29]