1976 Summer Paralympics

V Paralympic Games
Host city	Toronto, Canada
Nations participating	32
Athletes participating	1,657; (1,404 men, 253 women)
Events	447 in 13 sports
Opening ceremony	August 3
Closing ceremony	August 11
Officially opened by	Kevin Cheuk
Paralympic Stadium	Woodbine Racetrack; Centennial Park Stadium
Summer:
Winter:

The 1976 Summer Paralympics (branded as Torontolympiad - 1976 Olympiad for the Physically Disabled) were the fifth Paralympic Games to be held. They were held in Toronto, in the province of Ontario, Canada from August 3 to 11, 1976.

This marked the first time that Canada hosted the Summer Paralympics, which has now been followed by Canada's first Winter Paralympics, the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver. The 1976 Summer Olympics were also hosted by Canada, in Montreal.

Context[edit]

This was also the first time global politics interfered with the Paralympic Games. "The problem stemmed from the logic that admitting a team from South Africa was to give implicit approval for its government's attitude towards segregation and racism." Although the South African team at the time was a multi-racial one, the Canadian government withdrew its half million dollar contribution and "matching amounts of funds were likely to be pulled out by the metropolitan government".^[1]

Two groups, both with the same President - Ludwig Guttmann - were involved in the decision-making: the International Sports Organisation for the Disabled and the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation. Guttman and Bob Jackson, (Chairman of the Organising Committee) worked to convince the governments to honour their promises of support and were largely successful. Nevertheless, a number of teams withdrew, following on from the Montreal boycott by 25 countries, and were threatened with exclusion from future events. Later, efforts were made to develop a joint policy with the International Olympic Committee.^[1]

Rhodesia was not allowed to participate as the Canadian government refused to grant visas for the Rhodesian Paralympic team to attend the competition.^[2]

Venues[edit]

The opening of the 1976 games were held at Woodbine Race Track in north Etobicoke.

There was no athletes village, so the athletes were housed at York University (Keele campus), University of Toronto (Erindale?) and the CNIB (national headquarters in Toronto). Closing ceremonies and outdoor events (mainly track and field) took place at Centennial Park Stadium. Centennial Gymnasium and Centennial Park's Olympic Pool were the other venues (for indoor and swimming events respectively).

Sports[edit]

At the 1976 games, amputees and visually impaired athletes competed for the first time; previous editions of the Paralympic Games had included only wheelchair athletes. Within the sport of athletics, new wheelchair racing distances of 200 m, 400 m, 800 m and 1500 m were added. Shooting and goalball, both previously demonstration events, were included as official medal sports.^[3]

Medal table[edit]

The top 10 NPCs by number of gold medals are listed below. The host nation, Canada, is highlighted.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	66	44	44	154
2	Netherlands	45	25	14	84
3	Israel	40	13	16	69
4	West Germany	37	34	26	97
5	Great Britain	29	29	36	94
6	Canada	25	26	26	77
7	Poland	24	17	12	53
8	France	23	21	14	58
9	Sweden	22	27	24	73
10	Austria	17	16	17	50

Participating delegations[edit]

Forty delegations took part in the Toronto Paralympics.^[4]

South Africa was competing at the Paralympics for the fourth time. Although banned from the Olympic Games due to its policy of apartheid, it was not banned from the Paralympics until 1980, and Canada, as host country, did not object to its participation. These were, however, to be its last Paralympics before the dismantling of apartheid; The Netherlands, as hosts of the 1980 Games, declared South Africa's further participation "undesirable".^[5]^[6]