MIES (Switzerland) - The growth in popularity and profile of wheelchair basketball has been hugely significant and it was its inclusion at the inaugural 1960 Paralympic Games which proved a big catalyst.

A must on the list of FIBA 90 iconic moments, it sits in tandem with the eventual recognition of the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) by the FIBA World Congress in 1998.

Both of these events are pivotal as it laid the way for FIBA and the IWBF to then intensify their relationship, with the common goal of developing and growing basketball across the world.

The 1960 Paralympic Games were a huge step forward in basketball and wider sport for athletes with physical disabilities. The founder of the Paralympic Movement, Sir Ludwig Guttmann, and the Director of the Spinal Centre in Rome, Antonia Maglio, started preparations for the Games two years prior.

While deemed the 9th Annual International Stoke Mandeville Games, it is now regarded as the Rome 1960 Paralympic Games. The competition took place six days after the Closing Ceremony of the XVII Olympic Games and received valuable support from the Italian Olympic Committee and the Italian Institute for Disabled Workers (INAIL).

The Games involved 400 Para athletes from 23 countries who competed in 57 medal events across eight sports, of which basketball was central since all had to be considered as being beneficial and suitable for athletes with spinal cord injuries.

An impressive crowd of 5,000 spectators attended the Opening Ceremony, which greeted the wheelchair athletes during their colourful entry into the Acqua Acetosa Stadium.

It would then appear at every subsequent Paralympics, with the Women's Tournament also introduced for the 1968 Paralympic Games.

Meanwhile, a beneficial working relationship was established in 1992 by the then IWBF President Sir Philip Craven MBE and the former FIBA Secretary General Borislav Stankovic, following the creation of what was an independent Wheelchair Basketball Federation.

What morphed into the IWBF as we know today, was recognized as a basketball organization under the FIBA General Statutes by the FIBA World Congress. The IWBF works to support around  95 National Organizations for Wheelchair Basketball (NOWBs) worldwide.

2018 Wheelchair Basketball World Championships Men's Final between Great Britain and USA in Hamburg, Germany

Building on the need to do even more to secure inclusion and 'Enlarge the FIBA Family', 2022 witnessed both organizations take time to reaffirm their collective desire to strengthen their cooperation.

This included FIBA's Secretary General, Andreas Zagklis co-opted as a member of the IWBF Executive Council, with the proposal to make a FIBA representative a permanent member of the IWBF Executive Council at the IWBF World Congress  Dubai, UAE.

Further steps include IWBF President Ulf Mehrens invited onto a FIBA body, as well as FIBA holding the exclusive license for the commercial rights of IWBF for the next four-year cycle - all of which solidifies and intensifies this unique partnership for the good of basketball.

FIBA