History

Fencing for athletes in wheelchairs was introduced by Sir Ludwig Guttmann at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, in England, in 1953 and was first included in the Paralympic Games in Rome, in 1960. Since then, the rules have been gradually adapted according to advances in the techniques of fixing the wheelchair to the ground. Popular in Europe since its inception, the sport maintained a low profile in North America and Asia until the early part of the past decade.

At the Paralympics in Seoul in 1988, a new system of integrated classification for Wheelchair Fencing was introduced, which allows athletes with different disabilities (amputee, polio, cerebral palsy and paraplegia) the opportunity to compete together.