Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

sent a delegation to compete at the

1972 Summer Paralympics The 1972 Summer Paralympics (german: Paralympische Sommerspiele 1972), the fourth edition of the Paralympic Games, were held in Heidelberg, West Germany, from 2 to 11 August 1972. The games ended 15 days before the 1972 Summer Olympics held in Mu ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. Teams from the nation are referred to by

International Paralympic Committee The International Paralympic Committee (IPC; german: Internationales Paralympisches Komitee) is an international non-profit organisation and the global governing body for the Paralympic Movement. The IPC organizes the Paralympic Games and fun ...

(IPC) as Great Britain despite athletes from the whole of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, including those from

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, being eligible. They sent seventy two competitors, forty seven male and twenty five female. The team won fifty-two medals—sixteen gold, fifteen silver and twenty-one bronze—to finish third in the

medal table The Olympic medal table is a method of sorting the medal placements of countries in the modern-day Olympics and Paralympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not officially recognize a ranking of participating countries at the Olympic ...

behind

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Philip Craven Sir Philip Lee Craven (born 4 July 1950) is an English sports administrator, former Paralympic wheelchair basketball player, swimmer and track and field athlete. Between 2001 and 2017 he was the second president of the International Paralymp ...

, the former President of the IPC, competed in athletics, swimming and wheelchair basketball for Great Britain at these Games.

Disability classifications

Athletes at the Paralympics in 1972 were all afflicted by

spinal cord injuries A spinal cord injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal cord that causes temporary or permanent changes in its function. Symptoms may include loss of muscle function, sensation, or autonomic function in the parts of the body served by the spinal cor ...

and required the use of a wheelchair. This is in contrast to later Paralympics that include events for participants that fit into any of five different disability categories;

amputation Amputation is the removal of a limb by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on indi ...

, either congenital or sustained through injury or illness;

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, stiff muscles, weak muscles, and tremors. There may be problems with sensa ...

;

wheelchair A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...

athletes;

visual impairment Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment, is a medical definition primarily measured based on an individual's better eye visual acuity; in the absence of treatment such as correctable eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment� ...

, including

blindness Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment, is a medical definition primarily measured based on an individual's better eye visual acuity; in the absence of treatment such as correctable eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment� ...

; Les autres, any physical disability that does not fall strictly under one of the other categories, for example

dwarfism Dwarfism is a condition wherein an organism is exceptionally small, and mostly occurs in the animal kingdom. In humans, it is sometimes defined as an adult height of less than , regardless of sex; the average adult height among people with dw ...

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

. Each

Paralympic sport The Paralympic sports comprise all the sports contested in the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games. As of 2020, the Summer Paralympics included 22 sports and 539 medal events, and the Winter Paralympics include 5 sports and disciplines and about ...

then has its own classifications, dependent upon the specific physical demands of competition. Events are given a code, made of numbers and letters, describing the type of event and classification of the athletes competing.

Medalists

Medals by sport

Archery

Great Britain sent fifteen athletes to compete in archery at the Games; British archers won three silver medals and one bronze medal. Anderson was Britain's most successful archer winning silver in the women's St. Nicholas round tetraplegic event and teaming up with Taylor and

Jane Blackburn Jane Blackburn is a retired athlete who competed in a number of sports at five Paralympic Games. At the 1972 Heidelberg Paralympics, Blackburn won gold in the table tennis Women's doubles 1A-1B alongside Barbara Anderson, and silver in the A ...

to win silver in the mixed St. Nicholas round team tetraplegic event.

Margaret Maughan Margaret Maughan (19 June 192820 May 2020) was a British competitive archer, dartcher and bowls competitor. She was Britain's first gold medallist at the Paralympic Games, and won four gold and two silver medals at the Games. She lit the cauld ...

, who won Britain's first ever Paralympic gold medal during the 1960 Games, finished sixth in the women's FITA round open.

Athletics

Great Britain's thirty-two athletics competitors won seven medals in athletics. Howie won two individual gold medals in women's wheelchair racing events and added a third gold in the 4×x40 m wheelchair relay. The winning relay team also included

Carol Bryant Caz Walton Order of the British Empire, OBE (born Carol Bryant; 1 February 1947) is a British retired wheelchair athlete and former Great Britain at the Paralympics, Great Britain Paralympic team manager. She was a multi-disciplinary gold medal ...

who added an individual gold medal in wheelchair racing and a bronze in pentathlon.

, who 29-years later would become President of the IPC finished 24th in both of his athletics events.

Dartchery

Great Britain entered two athletes in dartchery, Margaret Maughan and M. Cooper competed in the women's pairs event and won the gold medal.

Lawn Bowls

Five British

lawn bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...

players competed in Heidelberg, each won at least one medal. T. Ure won a silver medal in the men's singles and also won silver in the men's pairs alongside Guthrie. In the women's events Barnard and F. Nowak won bronze and silver respectively in the singles; Nowak also teamed up with

Gwen Buck Gwen Buck BEM (1929–13 February 2005) was a British Paralympic athlete who competed in several sporting disciplines. She won gold medals in table tennis, lawn bowls, and swimming, and entered several athletics events across four Paralympic Ga ...

to win the gold medal in the women's pairs.

Snooker

Three British

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

players competed at the Games, each won a medal. In the men's paraplegic event

Michael Shelton Michael Shelton is a British sportsman who competed at the Summer Paralympic Games five times between 1960 and 1976 in snooker and other sports. He won six Paralympic medals, four gold, a silver and a bronze. He also won gold at the 1974 Commo ...

won gold for the third consecutive Games. In the men's tetraplegic event Great Britain won gold and bronze through Haslam and Mcgann respectively.

Swimming

Twenty-three British athletes took part in swimming events at the Games winning ten medals, two gold, three silver and four bronze. Three medals were won by A. West in men's 25 metres class 1A events, he took gold in backstroke and silvers in breaststroke and freestyle.

finished sixth in the men's 50 metres breaststroke class 3.

Table tennis

Britain entered eighteen table tennis players and won fifteen medals, two gold, four silver and nine bronze.

Weightlifting

Three British weightlifters competed in the 1972 Summer Paralympics winning one medal. In the men's light-heavyweight division R. Rowe won the gold medal with a lift of 175 kg, Alan Corrie finished sixth in the same event with his lift of 132.5 kg.

Wheelchair basketball

Great Britain entered teams in both the men's and women's events. The women's team lost both their group matches and failed to advance to the medal rounds. The men's team won three of their four group stage matches and advanced to the semifinals to face the United States. They lost the semifinal 36–52 and then lost the bronze medal playoff to Argentina meaning they finished in fourth place.

References

{{NPCin1972SummerParalympics Nations at the 1972 Summer Paralympics

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

Summer Paralympics The Summer Paralympics also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, are an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebral ...