ICE WARRIORS
USA SLED HOCKEY
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10 @ 8:00PM
The training is tough as the U.S. sled hockey team prepares for the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, in ICE WARRIORS.
The Stoke-Mandeville Games for the Paralyzed, held on the grounds of a hospital that treated injured war veterans, featured 16 people – 14 men and 2 women – competing in one sport, archery.
The games were the brainchild of Dr. Ludwig Guttmann, head of the Stoke-Mandeville Hospital’s Spinal Injuries Unit.Guttmann had realized that enforced, immobile bed rest, the standard practice in spinal injury cases, was hurting his patients. He experimented with moving the patients, gently turning them over regularly, and was encouraged by the results. He began programs to strengthen the patients with simple games of ball, then wheelchair polo and basketball, darts, and archery.Patients lived and thrived, and the idea of competitive sports for people with physical disabilities took hold.
