First sporting event for transplant recipients

The first sporting event exclusively for competitors who have received an organ transplant is the World Transplant Games, which held its inaugural edition at Castle Field in Southsea (near Portsmouth), Hampshire, UK, on 20 August 1978, with 99 entrants (all kidney transplantees) from five different countries. The Games were conceived by transplant surgeon Dr Maurice Slapak (UK), who was president of the organization from 1978 to 2004.

The body that now oversee the Games, the World Transplant Games Federation, officially formed almost a decade later in 1987. There are now some 60 member countries that participate in the Games, which like the Olympics are divided into Summer and Winter editions, running biannually.

The largest field of athletes at a World Transplant Games to date was at Málaga 2017 in Spain, where 1,365 competitors took part. It is also the largest Games so far overall, with a total registration of 2,199. The most countries represented at a World Transplant Games, meanwhile, was at Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2011, where 56 different nations took part.