Handisport

A handisport is a Sport whose rules were arranged so that it can be practiced by people having a Handicap physical or sensory. One names sport adapted the sports practiced by the people having a mental handicap. Many of these sports are based on existing sports. However, certain sports were created specifically for the handicapped people and do not have an equivalent in valid sport.

Organization and history

The sport organized for the handicapped people is often divided into three main categories of handicaps: deaf , the physical deficiencies and the intellectual deficiencies. Each group has its own history, its organizations, its competitions and its vision of the sport.

Sport for Deaf persons

The first international competition of sport for deaf people was organized in Paris in 1924, known under the name of The Silent Games . These plays were organized by the CISS (in the past International committee of the Quiet Sports, now International committee of the Sports of the Deaf persons) and they brought together 145 athletes coming from 9 European countries.

These worldwide games take place every four years since 1924 (except during the 2nd world war), and are called now the “deaflympics”. The deaflympics 2005 with Melbourne (Australia) brought together 2300 athletes of 75 countries. The CISS maintains plays separated for the deaf athletes in order to take account of their specific needs in communication and to support the social interaction which remains an essential component of the sport.

Sport for physical handicapped people

The handisport was often used in a therapeutic objective for the rehabilitation of the handicapped people. One of the pioneers of this method is the neurosurgeon Ludwig Guttmann, director of the hospital of Stoke Mandeville close to London, which looked after veterans of the Second world war become paraplegic. To support their rehabilitation in a ludic way, of the sporting plays were organized: the Netball in wheel chair, the Basketball in wheel chair as from 1955 and the shooting with the arc inter alia. These “plays of Stoke Mandeville”, organized since 1948, gave rise to the paralympic Jeux in 1960.

The handisport quickly became an activity of leisure then of competition.

In 1989, the International committee paralympic gathers all the structures of sport for handicapped people.

Today, some handisports as the basketball in wheel chair can be practiced by valid people. This big step of the integration of the handisport in the valid sport is not completed yet. Opinion even of much of handicapped sportsmen, there are still too many people who think initially of the handicap instead of thinking initially of the sportsman…

Sport for defective intellectuals

The sport for mental handicapped people started to be organized in the years 1960 by the movement Special Olympics. These competitions started during camps of summer organized by Eunice Kennedy Shriver as from 1962. First Special Olympics international took place in 1968 in Chicago.

An international federation was created in 1986, International the Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability (INAS-FID), to encourage and develop the high level sport with athletes having a mental handicap. This federation has an approach minus “sport for all” that preached by Special Olympics. During a certain time, the athletes having a mental handicap took part in the paralympic Jeux.

Athletes INAS-FID were banished plays paralympics following the scandal which took place during the paralympics 2000 when a certain number of athletes INAS-FID proved not to be handicapped whole! Work is in hand to be able to reinstate this category of handicap in the movement paralympic.

Handisports

A priori, each sport can be practiced by handicapped people, with the proviso of making there the alterations necessary. The list below is thus not exhaustive.

Handisports of summer

Handisports of winter

Handisport amateur

The handisport, just like the sport practiced by the valid ones, has benefit for health and the personal development. For the handicapped people, it is a means of recognition by the company by showing their potentialities instead of their limits.

Handisport of competition

The athletes handisport are not regarded yet as high level athletes with whole share. Moreover, the events handisport are médiatisés very little.

No handicapped athlete lives of his sport. Certain equipment, like the prosthesis of race for example, is very expensive. Their purchase is financed either by the sportsmen themselves or by Sponsor S.

Each handisport is the subject of competitions: national championships and championships of the world. The paralympic Plays (for the handicapped people engine and visual) and the special Olympic Games (for the mentally handicapped persons) are international events which gather different handisports.

At the time of the competitions, the sportsmen are gathered of categories according to the type and gravity of their handicap. The goal is to make contribute together athletes having comparable functional aptitudes. The categories are defined for each sport. They are generally indicated by a letter, which can be initial sport, and a number representing gravity of the handicap (the smaller the figure is, the more the handicap is important). For example, in swimming (“English swimming”), the handicapped people engine are classified in 10 categories, of S1 with S10 for the freestyle, the back and the butterfly.

The handisport in France

France and handisports

The history of the handisport in France starts in 1954 with the creation of the Association of Mutilated France. This association will become the Sporting Federation of the Physical Handicapped people of France, then in 1977 the French federation Handisport (FFH). In 1983, she is recognized of public utility.

The Handisport French federation counts more than 25.000 practitioners and nearly 550 clubs in 45 sports.

In France, it is the FFSA (French federation of the Sport Adapted) which governs the practice of physical-activities and sporting for the people having a mental handicap, and that in various divisions, thus making it possible each one to be expressed according to its capacities.

France and Plays paralympic

The French federation Handisport is member of the International committee Paralympique. France organized an edition of the Plays Paralympiques d' Hiver in 1992 in Tignes and Albertville. The following table presents the participation of the French sportsmen to the various paralympic editions of the Plays of summer.

See too

Internal bonds

  • French federation Handisport
  • French federation of the Sport Adapted
  • Handisport Geneva

External bonds

  • French federation Handisport

  • French federation of the Sport Adapted
  • Sporting Federation of the Deaf persons of France
  • Plusport - Swiss Sport Handicap
  • Handisport Departmental committee of the VAr (France)

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