R. Tait McKenzie: Inspirational sculptor and a pioneer advocate of physical activity for people with disabilities

Abstract

The London 2012 Summer Paralympics Mascot, “Mandeville”, is named after the village of Stoke Mandeville, near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. This was where the inaugural Stoke Mandeville Games were held in 1948. On 28 July 1948, men and women who had been injured throughout the Second World War assembled in Stoke Mandeville for archery events on the same day as the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympic Games. The acknowledged founder of the Stoke Mandeville Games, Sir Ludwig Guttmann, made this comment about the coincidence of both those sporting events having their Opening Ceremony on the same day: “Looking into the future, I prophesied that the time would come when this—The Mandeville Games—would achieve world fame as the disabled person’s equivalent of the Olympics”. Clearly, they were the inspiration for the modern Paralympic Games, which were first organised under that name in Rome in 1960. Today, the host city of the Olympics also organises the Paralympics. However, decades earlier, surrounding the First World War, another key figure addressed physical activity for those with a disability including difficulties and disabilities inflicted by war—Canadian-born sculptor, physical educator, physician, and academic, Robert Tait McKenzie.

Keywords:

• Paralympian
• Paralympic Games
• Paralympic history
• people with a disability
• Robert Tait McKenzie
• Stoke Mandeville Games

Acknowledgements

There was no research funding for this study, and no restrictions have been imposed on free access to, or publication of, the research data.

Notes

1. Three sets of “The Masks of Expression” were cast in bronze, with several others in plaster. To illustrate McKenzie’s understanding of anatomy and physiology of exercise, brief descriptions of each of the life-size “faces” follow:“Violent Effort”—“a sprinter, jumper, or thrower … breath has been caught and held till the end of the effort, for example the 100 yards is run in one breath”.“Breathlessness”—“an athlete after the first exhilaration feels an increasing uneasiness in his chest during a long race … as the struggle for breath becomes more and more acute his distress and anxiety increase till they are all but intolerable”.“Fatigue”—the getting of “second wind”; “fighting a lassitude of general fatigue”.“Exhaustion”— “just before collapse in the long-distance race” (Kozar, 1992, p. 39).

2. The full range of McKenzie’s sporting sculptures, many in colour, is in Kozar (1992). Websites that highlight some of McKenzie’s sporting sculpture include http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/pm.

3. William A. Carr won the 400-metres track event at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics in an Olympic record time of 46.2 secs.