Sir Ludwig “Poppa” Guttmann CBE FRS
(3 July 1899 – 18 March 1980) was a German-British neurologist who established the Paralympic Games in England.
A Jewish doctor, who had fled Nazi Germany just before the start of the Second World War, he is considered to be one of the founding fathers of organised physical activities for people with a disability.
In 1952, Dutch ex-servicemen joined the Movement and the International Stoke Mandeville Games were founded.
The Stoke Mandeville Games later became the Paralympic Games which first took place in Rome, Italy, in 1960 featuring 400 athletes from 23 countries.
The Paralympic motto is “Spirit in Motion”. The motto was introduced in 2004 at the Paralympic Games in Athens. The previous motto was “Mind, Body, Spirit”, introduced in 1994.
