1984 Summer Paralympics
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| Host city |
New York, United States Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom |
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| Nations participating | 45 (USA) 41 (UK) |
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| Athletes participating | 1800 (USA) 1100 (UK) |
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| Events | ~300 in 15 sports (USA) 603 in 10 sports (UK) |
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| Opening ceremony | June 17 (USA) July 22 (UK) |
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| Closing ceremony | June 30 (USA) August 1 (UK) |
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| Officially opened by |
President Ronald Reagan (USA) Charles, Prince of Wales (UK) |
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| Paralympic stadium |
Mitchel Athletic Complex (USA) Stoke Mandeville Stadium (UK) |
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The 1984 International Games for the Disabled, canonically the 1984 Summer Paralympics were the seventh Paralympic Games to be held. They were in fact two separate competitions - one in Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom for wheelchair athletes with spinal cord injuries and the other at the Mitchel Athletic Complex and Hofstra University in Long Island, New York, United States of America for wheelchair and ambulatory athletes with cerebral palsy, amputees, and les autres [the others] (conditions as well as blind and visually impaired athletes). Stoke Mandeville had been the location of the Stoke Mandeville Games from 1948 onwards, seen as the precursors to the Paralympic Games. As with the 1984 Summer Olympics, the Soviet Union and other communist countries except China, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Yugoslavia boycotted the Paralympic Games. Furthermore, Odeda Rosenthal, a Professor of Humanities at a local community college on Long Island and translator for the Austrian team highlighted a number of problems at the games in a series of articles. She highlighted a number of issues such as poor communication, administrative hiccups and even bus drivers not knowing the routes to scheduled events that even caused some teams to miss events completely. Rosenthal continues by slamming the work by the Police Chief claiming the Chief "took the opposite tack of anything that was suggested to sort out the mess". However, overall reports and the general impression given off by the games was a friendly atmosphere and volunteers trying their hardest under difficult conditions.
The mascot for the 1984 Paralympic Games was Dan D. Lion, which was designed by an art teacher Maryanne McGrath Higgins.
Patchy showers greeted the 14000 spectators packed into the Mitchel Park stadium for the 2pm start of the New York Games opening ceremony on the 19th June. New York radio personality William B. Williams introduced everyone with a welcome speech. Entertainers such as Bill Buzzeo and the Dixie Ramblers, Richie Havens, The New Image Drum and Bugle Corps, the ARC Gospel Chorus and the Square Dance Extravaganza followed the introduction speech.
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