Sport for people with a physical disability was introduced after World War ll, to assist the medical and psychological needs of the large number of injured ex-servicemen, -women and civilians. In researching new methods to minimize the consequences of their immobility, it provided a new and great possibility for reviving the idea of sport as a means of treatment and rehabilitation.

In 1944, Dr. Ludwig Guttmann, at the request of the British Government, opened a spinal injuries centre at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital. A new approach introduced sport as a paramount part of the remedial treatment and total rehabilitation of persons with a disability. Rehabilitation sport evolved rather quickly to recreational sport and the next step to competitive sport was only a matter of some years.

On 28 July 1948, the day of the Opening Ceremony of the 1948 Olympic Games in London, Dr. Guttmann organized the first competition for wheelchair athletes which he named the Stoke Mandeville Games. In 1952, Dutch ex-servicemen joined the movement and the International Stoke Mandeville Games Committee (ISMGF) was founded.

In 1960, the first Paralympic Games were held directly following the Olympic Games in Rome, Italy. The event used the same venues and format as the Olympic event and included 400 athletes from 23 countries. This event was to continue in this manner every four years following the Olympic cycle. A number of different disability groups were merged in the competition in 1976 and in the same year the first Paralympic Winter Games took place. In the five decades since then, the Paralympic Movement has seen unprecedented growth.

Today, thousands of athletes participate in more than 300 international sport competitions for persons with a disability taking place every year all over the world. The number of athletes participating in Summer Paralympic Games has increased to 3,806 athletes from 136 countries in Athens in 2004.

The word "Paralympic" derives from the Greek preposition "para" ("beside" or "alongside") and the word "Olympics" (the Paralympics being the parallel Games to the Olympics). The word Paralympic was originally a pun combining 'paraplegic' and 'Olympic', however with the inclusion of other disability groups and the close associations with the Olympic Movement, it now represents 'parallel' and 'Olympic' to illustrate how the two movements exist side by side.