News

People with physical disabilities will soon have a new and exciting organisation to look towards to access grassroots, recreational and high-performance sports: World Abilitysport. 

The new body is being established after the merger of the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation (IWAS) and Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CPISRA), two founding members of the Paralympic Movement, became official at the end of 2022. 

Para-cyclists from the world over participated in a training camp at the UCI World Cycling Centre (WCC) in Aigle, Switzerland, last week.

Alongside the para-cycling camp, 14 people attended a course for National Classifiers, and anothereight followed a classification module as part of the UCI WCC’s Level 2 coaching certificate.

Former World Curling Federation President, Kate Caithness CBE has become the first recipient of the newly created “Honorary Member of the World Curling Federation” title.

This new honorific is a gift that may be offered by the World Curling Federation Board and can be awarded to those who have given significant and outstanding service to the Federation and have completed their full term on the Board.

Caithness completed her full 12-year term as the World Curling Federation President in September 2022.

IBSA Football Sport Committee has just released new manuals to help children and female players start playing Blind Football. The manual was created with the support of UEFA, one of the most important partners that IBSA and IBSA Football have to continue working on the development of Blind and Partially Sighted Football.

The playing field is set for the 2022 IWBF Wheelchair Basketball World Championships which will take place between the 9 – 20 June 2023.

Hosts United Arab Emirates will welcome over 300 international wheelchair basketball players representing the following 12 women’s and 16 men’s teams to compete over twelve days of competition at the showcase event:

WOMEN’S

Athletes are the beating heart of the Paralympic Movement and it is for that reason that during the HULIC DAIHATSU Para Badminton World Championships 2022, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) lead a series of development workshops throughout the week, collaborating with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) on the Proud Paralympian Programme to help Paralympians on their sporting journey. 

The World Junior-B Curling Championships and World Wheelchair-B Curling Championship will return to the Kisakallio Sports Institute in Lohja, Finland for the 2023 and 2024 editions of each championship.

The Kisakallio Sports Institute has hosted the wheelchair curling event six times previously — in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022. It held the Junior-B event five times in the past — in 2016, 2018, 2019, January 2022 and December 2022.

The Association of Paralympic Sports Organisations (APSO) welcomed three new members at its General Assembly held in Berlin (GER), taking the organisation’s membership to 20.

World ParaVolley, the international federation of para sport disciplines sitting volleyball and beach paravolley, announced today a bold new decision in its long-term strategic planning to strengthen its marketing and management opportunities for the future.  The World ParaVolley Board took action to formally establish the organisation as a not-for-profit entity in the USA.  This creates a strong partnership with its existing World ParaVolley Foundation, a 501(c)3 not for profit corporation and the fundraising entity for the organisation’s global development planning.

The World Wheelchair Curling Championship and World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2024 will be held in the Gangneung Curling Centre, in Gangneung, Korea in March 2024.

The World Wheelchair Curling Championship 2024 will be held from 2–9 March and will be followed by the World Wheelchair Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2024 from 10–16 March.

Following a popular survey led by the organizers of the Rio de Janeiro 2022 World Boccia Championships, the championship mascot has been named – DIBO. A blend of “Dirceu” and “Boccia”, a posthumous honor to one of the greatest icons of Brazilian and World Boccia, Dirceu Pinto.