Sweden was one of twenty-eight nations that sent a delegation to the 1968 Summer Paralympics in Tel Aviv, Israel from November 4 to 13, 1968.[1][2] The team finished seventeenth in the medal table and won eleven medals: one gold, six silver and four bronze.[3] Thirty-two Swedish athletes took part in the Games; twenty-seven men and five women.[1][n 1]
Disability classifications
The Paralympics groups athletes' disabilities into one of five disability categories; amputation, the condition may be congenital or sustained through injury or illness; cerebral palsy; wheelchair athletes, there is often overlap between this and other categories; visual impairment, including blindness; Les autres, any physical disability that does not fall strictly under one of the other categories, for example dwarfism or multiple sclerosis.[4][5] Each Paralympic sport then has its own classifications, dependent upon the specific physical demands of competition. Events are given a code, made of numbers and letters, describing the type of event and classification of the athletes competing.[6]
Sweden sent nine athletes to compete in archery. Two medals were won by Swedish archers; Johansson won silver in the St. Nicholas round for paraplegic women and Rodaster won silver in the women's FITA round open.[7][8]
The only dartchery event at the Games was the mixed pairs event which had a knockout tournament format. Two Swedish pairs entered; Luks and Andersson lost in the first round to the AustraliansRoy Fowler and Kevin Bawden; Johansson and Hansson also lost in the first round to Belgian pair Schelfaut and Desal.[9]
Swedish swimmers won two silver and four bronze medals in Tel Aviv.[8] Two athletes won multiple medals; Soderberg won a silver in the men's 50 metres breaststroke class 5 cauda equina and a bronze in the 50 metres freestyle; Tufuesson won a bronze in the open 3×25 metres individual medley and a silver in the women's 50 metres backstroke class 4 incomplete.[8] Further bronze medals were won by Eden in the men's 50 metres breaststroke class 4 incomplete and by Olfson in men's 50 metres backstroke class 5 cauda equina.[8]
One man entered weightlifting events for Sweden, Benny Nilsson in the featherweight division.[8] He lifted 120 kg to win the silver medal. Gold was won by Dumont of France whose lift of 125 kg was a new world record.[10]
Sweden entered a team into the men's wheelchair basketball. The competition featured a pool stage followed by a knockout competition. Sweden lost both their pool matches, 8–26 to Belgium and 15–35 to Canada, and did not advance to the quarterfinals.[11]
^Data is taken from the International Paralympic Committee website and is based on information contained/sourced in the original hardcopy final results publications. Some information from earlier Paralympic Games (i.e. 1960 – 1984) is incomplete and is missing first names of some athletes