Paralympic Movement and International Paralympic Committee
IPC = International Paralympic committe
The effect
of sport in disabled health has fully been recognized in 18 and 19 centuries. Following
the 1st world war, physiotherapy and sport therapy received the same
importance as orthoepy and surgery.
Sports
therapy was the 1st step to initiate disabled sports which was then
ended with sports competitions. After the 2nd world war, sports for
disabled individuals came into being owing to great number of war disabled.
On 28th
July and concurrent with the opening ceremony of 1948 London Olympic Games,
sports with wheelchair began.
The Olympic movement goes back to 1948 when
Lodvic Gotmen organized the world disabled competitions under the title of
Stock Mandeville with participation of spinal cord amputees of Second World War.
In 1928,
the International Coordination Committee for disabled sports was inaugurated.
In the
years which followed, member countries asked for further presence and having
representatives in other organizations which led to establishing a public
institute entitled IPC in the year 1989 which is the only multi-sports body for
disabled sports until today.
IPC is a
non-for-profit sports body with 160 national Paralympic committees and five IFs
devoted to disabled sports as follows:
-International
Wheelchair Tennis Association-IWTA
-International
Wheelchair Basketball Federation- IWBF
-Cerebral
Palsy International Sport & Recreation Association- CPISRA
-International
Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities-INAS-FID
-World
Organization Volleyball for Disabled-WOVD
-International
Federation for wheelchair sports and amputees
-International
Blind Sports Association- IBSA
International
Paralympic Committee organizes Paralympic as well as other disabled sports
events at national and international levels. The disabled competitions are held
worldwide at following five levels:
1-International
tournaments
2-Regional
competitions
3-World
championships (biennial)
4-Paralympic
Games (quadrennial)
5-Club
competitions
The
international headquarters for disabled sports located in Bonn, Germany was
officially opened on 3rd September 1999.
Flip Keryon
, the President of International Paralympic Committee