The multiple benefits of sports for the disabled

The multiple benefits of sporting activities for disabled people are reviewed. A recent study in the Netherlands underlines once again the paradoxical situation that only a small number of persons with a disability participate in sporting activities. It is important to promote sports to disabled people themselves and to the parents of young children, and desirable that awareness of the multiple benefits of sporting activities be included in the curricula of trainee rehabilitation professionals. After reviewing international developments, current problems in integration and classification in relation to sports are described. There is a relative neglect of recreational as opposed to competitive and elite sports. In developing countries the introduction of sports could serve as a forerunner to, and even temporary substitute for, a complete rehabilitation system.