LAUSR

Abstract Today’s Swiss movement for disability sports is made up of two distinct institutional entities. This division originated in the 1960s, when prominent figures in the Swiss movement were seeking to institutionalize their practices. In 1956, Sport Handicap Geneva was the first Swiss association to offer and organize physical and sporting activities for physically disabled people. A few years later, in 1959, the Swiss Grouping for Paraplegics of the Swiss Association for Paralytics and rheumatics became the rallying point for athletes in wheelchairs who could no longer recognize themselves in the orientation proposed by the Swiss Sports Federation for Invalids, their expressions of disagreement setting the stage for a protracted conflict. An analysis of the beginnings of the institutionalization of disability sports in Switzerland will help us to better understand the reasons why this national sports movement has remained bicephalous.