Archery was contested at the first Stoke Mandeville Games in 1948, the event that inspired the Paralympics.
Dr. Ludwig Guttmann organized the competition at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England for injured World War II veterans. The event took place on 29 July 1948, the opening day of the London Olympic Games.
The original competition involved 16 servicemen and women, and archery was chosen because it could be adapted for wheelchair users while testing accuracy and control. Stoke Mandeville later developed into an international sporting event.
The 1960 Rome Games are generally recognized as the first official Paralympic Games, so the 1948 competition is not itself usually counted as a Paralympics. Archery remained on the Paralympic programme for decades before being removed after the 2016 Games.