The inaugural 1960 Summer Paralympic Games in Rome featured eight sports.
Held from 18 to 25 September 1960, the Rome Games were the first international competition officially called the Paralympic Games. They followed the 1960 Summer Olympics and brought together athletes with spinal cord injuries from 23 countries.
The eight sports were athletics, swimming, wheelchair fencing, wheelchair basketball, table tennis, archery, snooker and dartchery. Dartchery combined elements of darts and archery and was included only in the early Paralympic programme. It should not be confused with modern para archery, which developed separately as an established Paralympic discipline.
Rome’s programme was much smaller than that of later editions. Paris 2024, for example, featured 22 sports, reflecting the movement’s expansion to athletes with a much wider range of impairments and the growth of international governing bodies.