It was expected that the 1980 Paralympic Games would be held in the same city as the Olympic Games. The Soviet Sport Ministry was contacted as early as 1976 to see if they would host the Games. As there was no positive reply, the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation was asked to help organize the Games.

The national federations of Denmark, the Netherlands and South Africa offered to host the Games, and the Netherlands, through the Dutch Sports Association for the Disabled, was eventually awarded the bid. To cope with the large-scale event, the organizing committee set up the Foundation of the Olympic Games for the Disabled in 1977. South Africa's participation again became an issue. The country was eventually denied participation in the Games due to opposition to its Apartheid policies.

The Games were held at the Papendal National Sports Center in Arnhem. A public TV program called Telebingo was created in 1976 to help raise funds for the organization of the Games. Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the Netherlands was the patron of the Games. The Dutch government assisted mainly with military support, such as the use of army barracks to house athletes and officials.

A crowd of 12,000 attended the Opening Ceremony on 21 June at the Papendal stadium. Princess Margriet officially opened the Games, in which 42 countries took part with a total of 1,973 athletes. Of these, 1,055 were wheelchair athletes, 452 were amputee athletes, 341 were visually impaired athletes and 125 were cerebral palsy athletes, who were participating for the first time.

With so many different classes, there were more than 3,000 gold, silver and bronze medals to be won. The problem of medal inflation was only to be stabilized after another two Paralympic Games. Still, the athletes clearly deserved these honours for their top performances.

One of these top athletes was Neroli Fairhall of New Zealand, who won the wheelchair women's doubles Archery competition. Fairhall later competed at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, where she finished an impressive 35th among more than 56 competitors.

For the first time, Volleyball (Sitting) was added to the programme. The Netherlands took the gold medal with a 3:0 win over Sweden. Goalball became officially accepted as a Paralympic sport for the visually impaired, and Germany won the gold over 11 other competing nations. In Swimming, visually impaired American Trischa Zorn earned seven gold medals. In Athletics, Canadian single-leg amputee Arnold Boldt won the gold medal in the high jump with 1.96m to set a new world record.

The Arnhem Paralympics served to consolidate the sports programmes of the four major disability groups, represented by their international sport federations, in one venue for the first time. It also initiated the creation of the International Co-ordinating Committee (ICC), in which each federation was represented. By the end of the 1980s, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) was to emerge as the governing body of the Paralympic Games.

(Credit: IPC. Click here for further information.)