Great Britain at the Paralympics

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has participated (under the name "Great Britain") in every summer and winter Paralympic Games.

Great Britain at the Paralympics
Flag of the United Kingdom
IPC code	GBR
NPC	British Paralympic Association
Website	www.paralympics.org.uk
Medals Ranked 2nd	Gold 626 Silver 584 Bronze 579 Total 1,789
Summer appearances
1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020
Winter appearances
1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018

While the Olympic Games find their origin in Greece, Britain, and specifically the Stoke Mandeville Hospital is recognised as the spiritual home of the Paralympic Games. The first Paralympic Games, held in Rome in 1960, were devised as a direct result of the Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Games, devised by Dr Ludwig Guttmann for soldiers with spinal cord injuries, and this legacy is commemorated before each Paralympic Games since 2012 with the lighting of a 'legacy flame' at Stoke Mandeville as part of the Paralympic torch event.[1]

Britain has performed particularly well at the Summer Paralympic Games, consistently finishing between second and fifth on the medal tables - a slightly better performance than at the Olympics. Britain has won one gold medal at the Winter Paralympics and 626 at the Summer Games. Britain is second on the all-time Paralympic Games medal table.

Britain was the co-host of the 1984 Summer Paralympics in Stoke Mandeville, and the host of the 2012 Summer Paralympics, in London.

Although the country uses the name "Great Britain", athletes from Northern Ireland are entitled to compete as part of British delegations. Representatives of the devolved Northern Ireland government, however, have objected to the name, which they argue creates a perception that Northern Ireland is not part of the British Olympic team, and have called for the team to be renamed as Team UK.[2][3]

Under the terms of a long-standing settlement between the British Olympic Association and the Olympic Council of Ireland, athletes from Northern Ireland can elect to represent Ireland at the Olympics, as Northern Irish people are legally entitled to dual citizenship.[4]

Britain's most successful Paralympian is swimmer Mike Kenny who won 16 individual gold medals, as well as two relay silvers, in four Games.[5] Although Great Britain has competed in every Games, the British Paralympic Committee was only founded in 1989, after Kenny's retirement. Media in Britain consistently refer to the most decorated Paralympic athletes from that year, Tanni Grey-Thompson, Dave Roberts and Sarah Storey as Britain's "greatest Paralympians", occasionally with the phrase "of the modern era", attached.[6] The International Paralympic Committee, however, recognise all of Kenny's eighteen medals as Paralympic medals.[7]

Britain's first Paralympic gold was earned at the 1960 Rome Games by Margaret Maughan. Her feat was recognised when Maughan was chosen to light the Paralympic Flame during the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Summer Paralympics.[8]

Britain's first Winter Paralympic gold was earned at the Sochi 2014 Games by Kelly Gallagher and guide Charlotte Evans in the Women's Super-G Visually impaired.

Jade Etherington and guide Caroline Powell are the first and only Britons to win four medals at a single Winter Paralympics.[9] After winning a silver medal in the Super-G, visually impaired event on 14 March 2014, Etherington became Great Britain's most successful female Winter Paralympian.[10]