UO Adaptive Sports

Wheelchair Racing Timeline

Many of the equipment developments wheelchair road racers made in their pursuit of speed have filtered down into the everyday equipment available to all wheelchair users. When I broke my neck in 1975, I was told that I would have to use a power wheelchair because I�d never have the strength to push a manual chair. I could not push a manual chair very well back then because they weighed a ton (okay, 55 lbs.) and were bio-mechanically very inefficient.

After Bob Hall completed the Boston Marathon in 1975, everything started to change. Below is an incomplete timeline marking major developments in wheelchair racing.

1975 � Bob Hall completes the Boston Marathon in a standard 50 pound everyday wheelchair
1976 � Experimentation w/camber blocks and small hand rings to improve biomechanics of chairs
1976-78 � Garage builders begin experimenting with rigid chair frames of aluminum. or chrome-moly
1979 - Larger 27� (or 700cm) racing bicycle wheels used on rear wheels of racers
1980 � Quadra � the first ultra light everyday chair made of aluminum � Hansen and other quads start trading in power chairs for ultra-lights.
1981 � over 30 racers at Boston � Murray and Carpenter makes first transcontinental crossing by chair
1982 � Quickie joins the lightweight everyday chair market - Kerr bumps front wheel size up to 12�
1983 � Stainless markets a mass produced racing wheelchair which fits in a suitcase
1984 � Exhibition wheelchair races at the Los Angeles Olympics � George Murray on a Wheaties box
1985 � Invacare racing circuit ($50,000 PRIZE MONEY) & chair divisions at most major marathons
1987 � Bob Hall and Bosse Lindquist build and begin competing with the first 3 wheel race chairs
1988 � Seoul Paralympics Controversy on Nightline- prototype racing glove by NIKE lab in Eugene
1989 � Craig Blanchette becomes 1st Nike sponsored wheelchair athlete with NIKE TV commercials
1990 � Goodwill games � ESPN starts Breakaway( now In Pursuit) wheelchair sports show
1990 �2002 � Titanium and carbon fiber wheelchairs � straight-pull hubs � Vectran spokes � shock absorbers on all-terrain, everyday and power wheelchairs � 3 wheel tennis chairs � aerodynamics
1996 � Atlanta Paralympic Games covered daily by CBS
2004 � Welsh wheelchair racer Tanni-Grey Thompson is made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire �

Last updated on 20 Nov 2009 at 5:09 pm by Eli