‘Differently abled’: New exhibition reveals how attitudes to paralympic sport have changed

Paralympic History: From Integration in Sport to Social Inclusion (1948-2024) begins with the early community created through the Stoke Mandeville Games of 1948

Kerrie Leonard is part of the Irish team in Paris. Picture: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Soon after the closing of the London 2012 Olympic Games, Channel 4 began promoting its Paralympic coverage with the strapline: “Thanks for the warm-up”. It followed up with its biggest ever marketing campaign, “Meet the Superhumans”, that garnered critical acclaim.

The Paralympics were beamed to more than 100 countries, eventually drawing 3.8 billion viewers. At the closing ceremony Sebastian Coe, president of the London 2012 Organising Committee, said people would never think of disability in the same way again. Research undertaken after the Paralympics revealed that 65% of Britons agreed London delivered a breakthrough in the way people with an impairment are viewed.