Rehabilitation
& Sports for the Disabled
Sports for the Physically Disabled in Canada, arguably
started when Dr. Robert Jackson attended the 1964 Paralympic Games in Tokyo,
Japan. Canada did not compete at the games but
Jackson, a young doctor then, who was working as an
orthopedic consultant with the Canadian Olympic Team
in Japan, visited the games, and questioned why a
Canadian team was not present. Dr. Jackson had an
interest in the games because of a prior visit to
the wheelchair games in Stoke
Mandeville, England in 1961. He promised Sir
Ludwig Guttmann, the President of the International
Stoke Mandeville Games Federation (ISMGF), that he
would bring a Canadian team to the next Wheelchair
Olympics in 1968.
In 1967 Jackson along with several others, founded the
Canadian Wheelchair Sports
Association. He became founding President, and
held that position from 1967 to 1972. In 1968 he
fulfilled his promise to Sir Ludwig and took a team of
18 wheelchair athletes to Tel Aviv. In 1972 he took a
larger team to Heidelberg and became Vice-President of
ISMGF. He also accepted the responsibility for
organizing the 1976 Olympiad for the Physically
Disabled (also referred to as the TORONTOLYMPIAD) which was held in
Toronto, following the Olympic Games in Montreal.
These were the first true Paralympic Games which
included athletes with other disabilities (blind,
amputee and cerebral palsy athletes). Fifteen hundred
and sixty athletes from forty countries participated.
Also as a result of these games, sport for the
physically disabled became recognized as a true
sporting endeavor quite distinct from the “Special
Olympics” for mentally disabled individuals. Jackson
served wheelchair sport at the international level
with roles as director, vice-president, and president
of the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation
from 1968 until 1984, becoming President on the death
of Sir Ludwig Guttmann in 1980. For almost two
decades, Jackson travelled extensively around the
world promoting sport for the disabled and teaching
arthroscopic surgery.
Selected Rehabilitation Papers
*
Jackson
RW. Sexual
rehabilitation after cord injury. Paraplegia.
1972;10:50–55. [PubMed]
* Jackson RW, Fredrickson
A. Sports for the
physically disabled. The 1976 Olympiad (Toronto). Am J
Sports Med. 1979;7:293–296. [PubMed]
* Jackson,
R.W.:
What Did We Learn From
the Torontolympiad? Canadian Family Physician. Vol. 23: 6669,
May 1977 [PubMed]
* Kofsky, P.R., Davis,
G.M., Shephard, R.J., Keene, G.C.R. & Jackson,
R.W.:
CardioRespiratory Fitness
in the LowerLimb Disabled. Canadian Journal of Applied Sport
Sciences. Vol. 5. 1980 [PubMed]
* Jackson RW, Davis
GM. The value of
sports and recreation for the physically disabled. Orthop
Clin North Am. 1983;14:301–315. [PubMed]
* Jackson RW.
Sport for the spinal
paralysed person. Paraplegia. 1987;25:301–304.
[PubMed]
