CISS, now also called ICSD, is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The early pioneers of the international deaf sports movement were Eugène Rubens-Alcais (France) and Antoine Dresse (Belgium).
The first Summer Games were held in Paris in 1924, and started with 148 athletes from nine countries (France, Belgium, Great Britain, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia).
After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the CISS banned athletes from Russia and Belarus from that year's Deaflympics in Caxias do Sul, Brazil.
[2] The Deaflympics (previously called World Games for the Deaf, and International Games for the Deaf) are an International Olympic Committee (IOC)-sanctioned event at which deaf athletes compete at an elite level.