South Africa, apartheid and the Paralympic Games

South Africa was excluded from the 1964 Tokyo and 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games over their government's apartheid policies, before being finally expelled from the Olympic Movement in 1970. In contrast, South Africa first competed in the International Stoke Mandeville Games, which in an Olympic year became known as the Paralympic Games, in 1962. South Africa continued to compete until 1985 (although they had been excluded from both the 1980 and 1984 Paralympic Games) when they were finally expelled from the movement despite having competed with a racially integrated team since 1975. This article looks at some of the events and issues, particularly the influence of international politics, which led to their exclusion and eventual expulsion from the disability sports movement, despite the claims by both the South African team and the organizers of international disability sport that the fully racially integrated team was challenging apartheid by setting an example for others to follow. Publisher statement: This is an electronic version of an article that was published in Sport in Society © 2011 Copyright; Taylor & Francis. Sport in Society is available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17430437.2011.614773"