A review of wheelchair marathon and tennis.

Wheelchair sports were developed for people with spinal cord injuries, and have contributed greatly to the improvement of physical fitness and social interaction of handicapped people. Previously, wheelchair sports were used as a method of rehabilitation to increase the recreational activity of wheelchair-bound persons. Recently, however wheelchair sports have been expanded to include actual competitions for wheelchair athletes. There are numerous international wheelchair competitions and races all over the world. A wheelchair marathon race, one of the most strenuous wheelchair sports, has become a popular event in Japan. The Oita International Wheelchair Marathon has been held annually since 1981. In addition, the International Wheelchair Tennis competition in Iizuka City started in 1985. For the past 13 years, we have investigated the physiological aspects of wheelchair athletes primarily through these two competitions. In this review, the results of these studies are summarized and the significance of wheelchair sports is discussed from the medical rehabilitation point of view.