Wheelchair Basketball
is considered by many to be the most exciting wheelchair sports. It certainly attracts the most spectators during the Paralympics. In Sydney 2000, over 300,000 people attended the games. At the Paralympics in Rio 2016 the final between Spain and the USA was sold out and attracted 16.000 spectators.
Our Mission is to encourage more people to participate and to continue to play wheelchair basketball.
History
The game was first played by US war veterans in 1946. The first international game was played between Great Britain and the Netherlands in England at the International Stoke Mandeville Games. The 1st official European Championship for Men was organized in Belgium in 1970.
Today, it is played in over 100 countries and the total number of players worldwide is approximately 30,000.
Disability
Wheelchair basketball is not only for wheelchairs users. Over half of athletes have amputated limbs or other handicaps, preventing them playing ‘able-bodied’ basketball or other competitive sports. In many ways, the wheelchair is considered similarly to a bicycle; a sports enabler.
IWBF
The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) was founded in 1973 as a sub-commission of the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federations and renamed in 1989. Since 1993 the IWBF is the independent world governing body for wheelchair basketball. It currently has 4 geographic Zones; the Americas, Africa/Arab; Oceania/Asian and Europe. More than 90 countries throughout the world are active in wheelchair basketball at international level.
IWBF EUROPE
The IWBF Europe is the official IPC legitimated European organisation for the sport of wheelchair basketball and the largest Zone within the IWBF. At the moment 35 European National Organisation governing Wheelchair Basketball (NOWB) are members of IWBF Europe. As well as developing and promoting wheelchair basketball, IWBF Europe is responsible for organising European Championships A, B and C (every 2 years) for men, women and youth, as well as the EuroCups each year.