HISTORY OF THE ORGANISATION                                                                View Our Paralympic History

New Zealand’s first participation in sports events for people with disabilities was in 1962 when an Auckland paraplegic attended the British Commonwealth Paraplegic Games held in Western Australia.

In 1965, Auckland established the first disability regional association and in 1966 a team comprising of nine Aucklanders and one Dunedin competitor were selected to attend the Commonwealth Games in Jamaica.

Christchurch held the first inter-regional games in 1966, having by that time also set up an association. In 1968, the first National Disabled Championships were held with twenty-nine competitors. The Otago-Southland association was formed shortly after this event, followed by another in Wellington.

Also in 1968, the New Zealand Paraplegic & Physically Disabled Federation was formed as the National Sports Organisation for people with disabilities, to enable an official team to represent New Zealand at the Paralympic Games in Israel. Fifteen competitors attended and returned with one gold, two silver and one bronze medals.

1968 New Zealand Paralympic Games Team

Having changed its name to ParaFed New Zealand in the early nineties, a further change was made in October 1998 to Paralympics New Zealand. This was to gain greater public awareness and raise the profile of disability sport by focusing on its most prestigious event - the Paralympic Games.

Last Updated | Sunday, 05 February 2012