Swimming for the Physically Handicapped

Abstract

Greatly influenced by his father’s example, Mr. Jean Assimacopoulos considers amateur sport as an essential element of the modern way of life. Although, in competition, he has not known the success his father knew between 1912 and 1924 during which time the latter had taken part three times in the Olympic Games, in swimming and water polo, he admits how much the effort demanded by sport has helped him continuously through his law studies, as well as in his career as an administrator in the World Health Organisation. When, like his father, he became a sports instructor and administrator, he very soon became dedicated to sport as an organiser. As a swimming instructor in 1938, he soon understood how sport, particularly swimming, allows the physically handicapped to discover a new incentive in life. Since that time he has continued to dedicate himself to this cause, notably within the Sport Handicap Genève organisation. We would like to thank Mr. Jean Assimacopoulos for allowing us to print a study, which, he says modestly, is intended to be completed by others. Our sports friends have given their consent to publish photographs to illustrate this study, with the hope that this will prove useful to other handicapped people.