The 23rd Summer Deaflympics start in only 7 days time on 18th July! The Deaflympics torch arrived in Samsun, Turkey a few days ago where the games will take place.
Sporting events will kick off with the women’s football at 10am! But it’s not all about football; there is plenty of other sport to watch throughout the games including Athletics, Tennis, Golf, Swimming, Taekwondo and Wrestling. There is something for everyone!
The staff at Deaf Umbrella are into their sport and will surely be keeping up to date with all the news at the Deaflympics!
If you want to see the full line up of games and sports and to keep updated on scores and winners then visit their website and social media pages:
As the games are such a prestigious event in the Deaf community, here is a bit of history about the Deaflympics:
The Deaflympics were originally named the International Silent Games and the very first games were held in Paris in 1924 with athletes coming together from nine European nations.
This brilliant idea originated from Mr. Eugène Rubens-Alcais, a deaf French man and President of the French Deaf Sports Federation.
His idea was fiercely supported by Mr. Antoine Dresse from Belgium and both worked together to form the International Silent Games.
During a time when deaf people were viewed as academically incapable, inferior and were treated as outcasts, their vision was to disprove these stereotypes and to show that deaf people were more than what people viewed them to be.
Incredibly, The Silent Games were the first of their kind for any group of people with disabilities. It was also the second internationally-competed games to be created, preceded only by the modern-day Olympics.
Interestingly, the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (ICSD) who organise the games, only permit deaf people to become members on the board as this ensures the games are run only by members of the community they serve.
Since the first games in 1924, there have been 22 Summer Games which have been held every 4-years in a variety of countries. The only exceptions were in 1943 and 1947 when the games were cancelled due to World War II.
Nowadays, there are 109 national federation members in the ICSD including countries such as Pakistan, Nigeria, Jordan, Yeman, Zambia, Finland and Malaysia. This is a big difference compared to the original 9 nations almost 100 years ago!
Clearly, the Deaflympics have been a big success and we hope they continue to encourage more deaf athletes to conquer barriers and strive to compete for their countries.
Deaflympics motto:
“PER LUDOS AEQUALITAS”
“Equality through sports”
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