Wheelchair Track Poster for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games held in Los Angeles, California
date: label: date made
content: 1984
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This poster was designed for the first wheelchair marathon held at the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, believed inclusion was the most important aspect of the games. The first Paralympic Games were held in Rome in 1960, a week after the Summer Olympics. This tradition of holding the games for athletes with disabilities after the Olympics continues today. These first games were for wheelchair users only, but in 1976 athletes with other disabilities were welcomed. In that same year adaptive athletes from the Winter Olympics were also embraced. The 1996 games in Atlanta marked a turning point as the first games to fully include the Paralympic athletes and events under the Team USA banner.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The 1984 Summer Olympics, also known as the Games of the XXIII Olympiad were held in Los Angeles, California with 140 countries participating. These Games were boycotted by fourteen countries, including the Soviet Union because of America’s boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. American Carl Lewis won four gold medals in track and field while Joan Benoit won gold for the U.S. in the first women’s marathon. Mary Lou Retton dominated women’s gymnastics becoming the first American to win the gymnastics all-around competition and the American men won the gold in the gymnastics team competition. With the addition of women’s only events of rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming and the addition of women’s events in track and field, shooting and cycling, women athletes were just beginning to see results from Title IX legislation of twelve years prior. The United States won the medal count with 174.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: web subject
content: Sports
label: name of sport
content: track
label: level of sport
content: paralympics
label: web subject
content: Adaptive Sports
label: web subject
content: Disabilities
label: level of sport
content: Amateur
label: related event
content: Olympic Summer Games: Los Angeles, 1984
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Sport and Leisure
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee (through Carol Daniels)
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1985.0297.29
label: accession number
content: 1985.0297
label: catalog number
content: 1985.0297.29
objectType: label: Object Name
content: poster, summer paralympics
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 86.3 cm x 55.8 cm; 33 31/32 in x 21 31/32 in