An opportunity for people with sport as their primary focus

Since March 1960, the responsibility for selecting and organising international sporting teams to attend the Paralympic Games, Commonwealth Paraplegic Games and Stoke Mandeville Games resided with the Australian Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Council, which was established in 1960 as the Australian Paraplegic Council.

In 1971, this responsibility was delegated to the Australian Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Sports Sub Committee (APQSSC) of the Council.

This was important, because it created the opportunity to people for whom sport was their primary focus, whereas the Council itself was concerned with a full range of areas that affected spinal injuries in Australia and the treatment and rehabilitation of those with spinal injuries. It also opened the opportunity for athletes to have a say in the way Para-sport was managed.

In the early years, the same people who oversaw the rehabilitation of people with spinal injuries also sat on the Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Council. For them, making selection decisions and arrangements for sporting events was just an extension of their broader role in assisting the rehabilitation and reintegration into society of people with spinal injuries.

Responsibility for selecting and organising international sporting teams was delegated to the Australian Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Sports Sub Committee (APQSSC).