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ACTIVITIES
OF SPORTS FEDERATION FOR THE DISABLED OF SLOVENIA
The
Sports Federation for the Disabled of Slovenia (SFDS) was founded in 1950, when the Committee for Sports
was established within the Association of the Disabled War Veterans; the
Committee later evolved into the present Sports Federation for the
disabled of Slovenia (SFDS), which meant the beginning of organised sports
for the disabled in Slovenia.
Over
the years SFDS has undergone many changes in terms of programmes and
organisation. At the beginning it founded sports societies for the
disabled, organised competitions, trained organisers, and encouraged new
groups to take up sports and recreation activities. The following
disciplines have been part of the programme since the very start: giant
slalom, skittles, bowling, swimming, table tennis and shooting with air
weapons.
Today,
national organisations for the disabled, as founders of SFDS, carry out
recreation and sports activities on a lower level, and SFDS mostly covers
national championships and top level sports for disabled athletes. The
programme includes all disabled groups – physically impaired, deaf,
blind and partially sighted, mentally impaired. We
organise around 30 national championships every year with around 1.000
disabled athletes participating, and take part in 8 to 15 official
international championships for the disabled (World and European
championships, World Games and Paralympic Games) with 70 to 100 athletes
regardless of the nature of their disability. Between 1992 and 1999
Slovenian disabled athletes won 163 medals (56 gold, 52 silver, 55
bronze). SFDS is a member of 15 international sports for the disabled
organisations, the most important being the International Paralympic
Committee (IPC), the
governing body of the Paralympic Games.
SFDS
is
also a member of the Olympic Committee of Slovenia where it represents all
the sports for the disabled in Slovenia and its president
Ernest
Jazbinšek is at the same time a member
of the executive board of the Olympic Committee of Slovenia.
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