Why can the Paralympic movement include the deaf and hard of hearing athletes?
This is a complex question requiring complex answers. 1. The first international games for the deaf was founded in 1924 as a stand-alone event, making it the second oldest event organized in the Olympic Movement spirit. The original name of the competition was the “International Silent Games” and later the “World Games for the Deaf”. In 2001, the International Olympic Committee granted ICSD permission to identify its quadrennial games as Summer Deaflympics and Winter Deaflympics. The Paralympic Games, a name that was approved by the IOC in 1984, began under a different name “International Stoke Mandeville Games” in 1952. 2. During the Deaflympics, deaf athletes compete against and interact with each other in sign language. Sign language interpreters come into the picture when hearing people are involved. 3. The 1995 ICSD Congress voted unanimously to disaffiliate from the IPC, as the deaf international community felt it was in its best interests to retain autonomous control and managem
