This is how the Paralympics works: You watch it out of curiosity, and then before you know it, you’re hooked on goalball.
You want to learn more about the sport and maybe even hear what a goalball sounds like in person, but you can’t just go and buy a goalball ball at any sports store—I didn’t even see one at Decathlon Paris La Madeleine, which has just about everything, including a rhythmic gymnastics section and an equestrian department. What do you do?
You head to the Pantheon for its exhibit on Paralympic history.
As part of the Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad, Paralympic history comes to light at the exhibit Histoires Paralympiques: De L’integration Sportive à L’inclusion Sociale (1948-2024) [Paralympic stories: from sporting integration to social inclusion (1948-2024)], held at the historic Pantheon in Paris’ 5th arrondissement.
The exhibit traces the Paralympic movement back to 1948, the year of the first Stoke Mandeville Games.
Organized by Dr. Ludwig Guttman, Director of the National Spinal Injuries Centre at the Emergency Medical Services Hospital at Stoke Mandeville, England. Guttman treated his patients with the idea that a spinal injury was not a death sentence, and he incorporated rehabilitation into his patients’ treatment. This rehab often took the form of sports and other activities to help patients build a life outside of the hospital, an unusual view at the time because in this society, disabled people were often kept behind closed doors.
Taking advantage of the fact that London was hosting the 1948 Olympics and would have the world’s spotlight, Guttman organized the first Stoke Mandeville Games, which took place on the same day as the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, to attract attention to his patients’ abilities. It became an annual event that grew into an international movement now known as the Paralympics.
The exhibit includes photos, videos and artifacts that give insight to the development of the and how sports federations and nations worked together to create an organization that would come to be called the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). Not all disabilities opted to be part of the IPC. Deaf athletes have their own Games, which were founded in 1924, and the Deaf community opted out of the Paralympic movement because its athletes were able-bodied and would be on a different competitive field. The need to have sign language interpreters would also separate deaf athletes in a environment that was designed to bring people together.
The exhibit shows the development of the Agitos, the Paralympic symbol, which in 1988 looked quite similar to the Olympic Rings, but has since morphed into three swooshes that symbolize motion and depict the idea of the world coming together for sport.
Another element special to the Paralympics is classification, and exhibit curators devote a portion of the exhibit to discussing the evolution of classification and how it works to group athletes of like abilities so that there’s a more even playing field.
Curators include artifacts of para sport, including an antique hand cycling wheelchair, a sit ski, wheelchair gloves, a boccia ball, and a goalball that you can touch and roll to hear its jingle.
Interact with a goalball, boccia ball, and wheelchair racing glove.
A section about the wildly successful London 2012 Paralympics includes a Mandeville mascot. You can decide for yourself whether it’s creepy or cute.
While the exhibit doesn’t take up a lot of floor space, it’s packed with information, pictures, and videos to bring the Paralympics’ history to life. It’s an easy way to learn about the history of the movement as you watch the athletes of Paris 2024 compete–and it doesn’t hurt that it’s in a beautiful building.
The exhibit runs through September 29, 2024. During this time, the Pantheon is open daily from 10:00 am to 6:30 pm, with last entry 45 minutes before closing.