A Sporting Chance

This biography traces Ludwig Guttmann’s path from a Jewish doctor fleeing Germany to his work treating soldiers with spinal injuries near London. Rejecting the idea that people with paralysis should be treated as hopeless cases, he developed physical therapy, training, work opportunities, and sports programs. Inspired in part by patients’ wheelchair polo, the competition at Stoke Mandeville eventually became the Paralympics. Historic photographs, original illustrations, source notes, a timeline, and an index accompany the account.