National Paralympic Committee-NPC

 

The National Paralympic Committee was established on 5^th February 2001 to develop disabled sport.

All the countries of the world which are the International Paralympic Committee-IPC- members shall also have a national Paralympic committee-NPC.

Presently, 144 countries have their own NPCs and are IPC members. The following disabilities are practiced in disabled sports activities:

1-Amputees

2-Spinal cord injuries

3-Cerebral palsy

4-Blinds

5-Mentally retarded

6-Polio

One of the objectives of this committee is to increase the number of disabled athletes in various age categories including children, young adults and the youth and involve them in sports for all activities thereby providing the grounds for the development of high-performance sports in the target group as an important objective of the national Paralympic committee in the future.   

The NPC sports for all commission was founded on 18^th February 2003.

One of the annual programs of the commission is to commemorate the National Paralympic Day which is held regularly every year since its establishment.

This program has an innovative and novel nature throughout the world and was warmly welcomed by then IPC Secretary General in the year 2003 as a new developmental idea in such a way that it is implemented worldwide in a variety of ways.

Apart from that, in addition to deep effects in the target group i.e. athletes, this program raises awareness in coaches and particularly athletes’ parents towards the importance and role of sport in life of athletes.

This complex includes 2 federations’ namely disabled and blind federations. Disabled federation constitutes 15 sports as follows:

Ski, wheelchair basketball, booccia, table tennis, tennis with wheelchair, archery, shooting, swimming, athletics, weightlifting, sitting volleyball, seven aside

Football, mountain climbing, ancient sports and cycling.

The blind and partly blind sports federation include 8 sports as follows:

Judo, goal ball, athletics, swimming, cycling, football, five asides, chess, and blind weightlifting.

It is worth mentioning that sports of the Paralympic games which is held every four years are as follows:

Archery, athletics, booccia, cycling, horse riding, seven aside football, five aside football, goal ball, Judo, weightlifting, canoeing-sailing- shooting, swimming, table tennis, sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair fencing, rugby with wheelchair, tennis with wheelchair

In view of the IPC official announcement from Dr. Robert Stidward on the necessity of establishing the national Paralympic committee in Iran and its statute in the year 2009 and approval of the Islamic Consultative Assembly Chair, Mr, Nategh Noori, on one hand and extensive activities of disabled sports in the country, the agreement was reached to set up the national Paralympic committee.

Following the above confirmation and drawing up the national Paralympic committee statute, this sports body was officially approved by the national Olympic committee and its first General Assembly was held on 20^th January 2001and elected the executive board members and board members with Mr. Mahmoud Khosravi Vafa as its president.

The National Paralympic Committee-NPC- officially began its activities on 22^nd May 2001 after purchasing and renovating a building concurrent with birth anniversary of holy prophet (PBUH)

The National Paralympic Committee acts as a non-commercial, non-for-profit institute affiliated to the national Olympic committee and is the only sports body which is entrusted with the authority to manage, and coordinate all affairs relating to participation of Iranian disabled champions in the winter and summer Paralympic Games, and regional events under aegis of international Paralympic committee.

The disabled champions are all those athletes who fall under the category of the relevant international federations namely amputees, cerebral palsy, and blind and mentally retarded.

The National Paralympic Committee has a legal personality and, based on the law for list of non-governmental public institutions approved in the year 1995, is considered a non-governmental public organization.