Emmanuel Macron participated, Sunday October 8, in the 2nd edition of the Paralympic day in Paris. There world disability day takes place this Monday, October 9. And sauerkraut is at the origin of the creation of the Paralympic Games. But be careful, the dish doesn’t have much to do with it.
Sauerkraut is simply nickname given to the inventor of this competition, Doctor Ludwig Guttmann, by these British counterparts when he arrived on English soil after fleeing Nazi Germany. At the risk of his life, this man saved around sixty Jews during the famous “Kristallnacht”, making them pass for sick people in the hospital he was in charge of.
This nickname is not very rewarding for a hero. On English soil, for other doctors, Ludwig Guttmann was a crazy person who had put himself at the head of treating invalids with spinal injuries. At the time, THE experts thought it was impossible. When soldiers are hit in the spine and paralyzed in the legs, they are repatriated in half-coffins then shot with morphine before being plastered from head to toe. They then lie on a bed where they eventually die from an infection.
But this doctor doesn’t want to do it. In his institute, located in north London, this brilliant neurosurgeon implements its method, which happens precisely through movement. It seeks to focus patients on what they can do rather than what they can no longer do. The doctor tries to get them to move so that they avoid bedsores and infections. Paralyzed people do manual activities, such as carpentry, and especially sports. They do wheelchair polo, basketball and even archery.
The story of the birth of the Paralympic Games
The results are in. Compared to the paralyzed people of the First World War, the life expectancy of patients is multiplied by ten. To make this method known, Doctor Guttmann then had an idea. In 1948, on the opening day of the London Olympics, he organizes a competition with his patients. Twelve war veterans and two women compete in archery and netball, a derivative of basketball. Four years later, he managed to bring in disabled Dutch people.
After going out of his way, he manages to convince the IOC in 1960for the JO from Rometo integrate these Games now open to all disabled people. 400 athletes from 23 countries compete. Doctor Guttmann, knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, died in 1980, without having seen the full fruition of his dream. That of seeing the Paralympic Games take place in the same stadiums as those used for the Olympic Games, a rule in place since 1988. The 4,400 Paralympic athletes will have this privilege next year in Paris. “The mind in motion”this is the motto of the Paralympic Games.
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2023-10-09 05:06:00
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