Madrid 1992 – the Paralympic Games that time forgot!

The International Association of Sports for Persons with a Mental Handicap, which later became the International Association of Sports for Persons with Intellectual Disability (INAS-FID), were accepted into membership of the International Co-ordinating Committee (ICC) (fore-runners to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC)) at their 10th meeting held in Gothenburg in 1986. Although events for athletes with an intellectual disability were added to the programme for the Winter Paralympic Games in Tignes the same year it was decided that a separate summer Games, sanctioned by ICC, would be held in Madrid immediately after the Games in Barcelona as part of their gradual inclusion into the overall Paralympic framework. It is clear from the literature available regarding the Paralympic Games that the Games in Madrid are rarely, if ever, recognised as a Paralympic Games. Even the International Paralympic Committee website makes no mention of these Games. However, the contract dated 6th October 1990 between ICC and IPC regarding control of all the Games that occurred in 1992 specifically refers to the Paralympic Games in Tignes, Barcelona AND Madrid. The issue of the inclusion of athletes from INAS-FMH in the Barcelona Paralympic Games was discussed at the ICC meeting held in Copenhagen from 27-29 March 1989. Following discussion in which representatives of ISMGF stated that admission to a Paralympic competition would be detrimental to the sports movement for the disabled a vote was held in which CISS, CP-ISRA, INAS-FMH and ISOD voted in favour of the participation of intellectually disabled athletes in Barcelona, but ISMGF voted against and IBSA abstained. As the vote had to unanimous the matter was tabled for the next meeting. That meeting was held in Aylesbury, England on 30-31 July 1989. In between these two meetings ISMGF, ISOD and IBSA had either held General Assemblies or Executive Board meetings at which it had been decided not to support the full inclusion of intellectually disabled athletes in Barcelona, although IBSA would accept demonstration events. The vote ended 3 in favour of their inclusion and 3 against and so the motion was lost. A second vote for the inclusion of demonstration events ended with 3 in favour, 1 against and two abstentions, but as the vote needed to be unanimous the motion was once again lost. Before the next ICC meeting in Barcelona from 27-28 January 1990 Mr Vicente, President of INAS-FMH made a request for ICC to sanction a Games under the Paralympic flag at a different venue and time to the Games in Barcelona. Mr Vicente stated that they were to be held in Madrid. After some discussion and with the blessing of the Barcelona Organising Committee a vote was held and the motion was carried unanimously. Some details of those Games are as follows:

Confirmed Participating Nations               75

Confirmed Participating Athletes             ~1600*

Number of Events                                           68

Opening Ceremony                                         Tuesday 15th September (5.00pm)

                                                                                Palacio de los Deportes de Madrid

Closing Ceremony                                          Tuesday 22nd September (5.00pm)

                                                                               Palacio de los Deportes de Madrid

Officially Opened by                                    Queen Sofia of Spain

Main Stadium                                                 Palacio de Deportes (For Opening and

                                                                              Closing Ceremonies)

Flame Lit by                                                    Coral Bistuer (Olympic Taekwondo 

                                                                             Champion)

Athlete’s Oath                                                All athletes together in unison

Mascot                                                             Andy

Official’s Oath                                                None Known

*This number is an approximation based upon available information as no complete set of results or entry lists is currently available

Participating Nations (75): Algeria, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brasil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Commonwealth of Independent States (Unified Team), Colombia, Croatia, Curacao, Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Namibia, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Surinam, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Zimbabwe.

(Countries in bold are those appearing at a summer Paralympic Games for the first time)

Sports (5): Athletics, Basketball, Indoor Football, Swimming, Table Tennis.

Impairment Groups (1): Intellectually Disabled.

Sporting Venues Used:

Ciudad de los Poetas:                                                             Basketball

Consejo Superior de Deportes:                                          Football, Table Tennis

La Emerita Sports Complex, University of Madrid: Football

Piscina Mundial ‘86:                                                                Swimming

Palacio de los Deportes:                                                        Basketball Final

Polideportivo Dehesa de la Villa:                                      Basketball

Pistas INEF, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid:     Athletics

The Outstanding Performers in Madrid

The Australian men’s swimming team was totally dominant in the pool, with Joseph Walker being the undoubted star winning nine gold medals (five individual, 4 relay) from nine events and setting two world records. However, this feat was equalled in the women’s swimming events where Sigrun Huld of Iceland also took five individual and four relay gold medals.

The Final Medal Table

		Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Australia	13	10	9	32
2	Romania	10	6	7	23
3	Iceland	10	6	6	22
4	Sweden	9	11	10	30
5	Uruguay	5	4	5	14
6	Spain	5	1	7	13
7	China	5	1	0	6
8	C.I.S.	3	1	1	5
9	Dominican Republic	2	6	1	9
10	Great Britain	2	4	5	11
11	Kenya	2	1	2	5
12	Argentina	1	3	2	6
13	Brasil	1	3	1	5
14	Canada	1	2	3	6
15	Chile	1	0	0	1
16	Portugal	0	3	2	5
17	Poland	0	1	1	2
18=	Tunisia	0	1	0	1
	South Korea	0	1	0	1
	Greece	0	1	0	1
21=	Finland	0	0	1	1
	Japan	0	0	1	1
	Ecuador	0	0	1	1
	Netherlands	0	0	1	1
	Puerto Rico	0	0	1	1
	France	0	0	1	1
		70	66	68	204

The first three athletes with an intellectual disability to win medals in the history of the Paralympic Games were Joseph Walker (AUS) (Gold), Damian Huber (ARG) (Silver) and Joshua Hoffer (AUS) (Bronze) in the men’s 200m freestyle swimming. The medals were presented by Jerry Wolsh and Wim Zonneveld, honorary members of INAS-FMH