Friday 24 August 2012

BBC: "Carried by soldiers, no score-keepers at 1960 Paralympics"


Link to the British Broadcasting Corporation

"The first Paralympic Games in Rome in 1960 was a disorganised and undignified affair, symptomatic of attitudes in the 1950s and 60s. Soldiers carried competitors to and from the athletes' village, and score-keeping was haphazard.

"When archer Margaret Maughan won Britain's first-ever gold medal in the Paralympics, there was no crowd, no podium and almost no Maughan.

"She had to be dragged off the coach going back to the rudimentary Olympic village to be presented with her prize. As no-one was keeping the score in the archery competition, she had no idea she'd won, let alone the fact there was a ceremony."

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