Margaret Maughan
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Paralympic Games | ||
Representing  United Kingdom
|
||
| Archery (B1) | ||
 |
1960 Rome | Columbia Round open |
| Swimming (class 5) | ||
|
1960 Rome | 50 m Backstroke complete |
| Dartchery | ||
|
1972 Heidelberg | Pairs open |
 |
1976 Toronto | Pairs open |
| Lawn bowls (wh / 2-5) | ||
|
1976 Toronto | Pairs |
|
1980 Arnheim | Pairs |
Margaret Maughan (born 19 June 1928) is a British former competitive archer. She holds the distinction of being Britain's first ever gold medallist at the Paralympic Games. She lit the cauldron at the Olympic Stadium (London) at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Paralympics.
Maughan was left paralysed from the waist down and unable to walk by a road accident in Malawi in 1959. She returned to Britain and was treated at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, where spinal injury unit founder Dr. Ludwig Guttmann pioneered the use of sport in therapy. There, she took up archery and joined an archery club. The hospital had been the site of the Stoke Mandeville Games, a sports competition for wheelchair athletes which subsequently developed into the Paralympic Games.
Maughan was selected as part of Britain's delegation to the Ninth Stoke Mandeville Games, later known as the First Summer Paralympic Games, held in Rome in 1960.
Maughan competed in only one archery event, the Women's Columbia round open. Scoring 484 points, she won Britain's first ever Paralympic gold medal. Because of disorganization in tracking the scores, she had to be taken from the coach heading back to the Olympic village to be presented with her prize.
She also took part in swimming, in the Women's 50 metre backstroke complete class 5. As she was the only competitor in the race, she won by completing the full 50 metres, with a time of 1:49.2.
Wheelchair accessibility in transport and housing was not a major consideration at the time, and Maughan would later relate how she and her British teammates were moved onto the plane to Rome with forklift trucks. Once at the Games, Italian army soldiers had to be called in to carry them up and down the stairs to the athletes' residences. Returning home, she and her wheelchair had to travel in the guard's van on the train back to Preston. Finding employment was difficult; although she was a qualified teacher it was assumed a woman in a wheelchair could not control a class of students.
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