Disabled sports in Spain
The first major organization for disabled sports was created in 1968 at the direction of then president of the Spanish Olympic Committee Juan Antonio Samaranch.
[1] It was not until 1949 that the Spanish Committee of Silent Sports was created;[1] Marcos Anavi Benavideste was the group's first president, a position he would stay in for ten years.
Competitive blind sport started by 1958 at Colegio Inmaculada Concepción de Madrid when an organized race took place between visually impaired and sighted students.
[6] As a result of the increase in participation and interest in sport for people with physical disabilities, then president of the Spanish Olympic Committee Juan Antonio Samaranch charged Guillermo Cabezas to create the Spanish Sports Federation for the Physically Disabled (FEDDF), which was done in 1968.
A number of public institutions were indifferent to needs of sportspeople with disabilities, did not understand what role the organization should play and, consequently, they provided little assistance.
[4] Key people involved in pioneering disabled sports during the 1960s included Diego Monreal, Mary Tamayo, Lojo Jaramillo, Juan Peris, Jose Barbero, Olga Martinez, Juan Palau, Jesus Maza, Antonio Marco, Isabel de Cubas, J. Antonio Jiménez, Gaspar Anaya, and Alfonso Otero.
Its organizers offered a model of success that was then duplicated in other Spanish sports including swimming and skiing.
[4] When sport for people physical disabilities really began in Spain during the 1970s, it was intended to aid in patient rehabilitation.
[3] In 1972, the first National Sports Championships for the Physically Disabled (Spanish: Juegos Nacionales Minusválidos were held.
[13] When Barcelona hosted the 1992 Summer Paralympics, this edition turned a defining moment for disabled sports in Spain and the world.
[4] 26% of the athletes competing at the Barcelona Games had incurred an injury that resulted in their disability before they were fifteen years old.
[4] By the time the 1996 Summer Paralympics arrived, Spanish disability sportspeople were regularly training alongside their able bodied counterparts.
[16][17][18] In June 2005, Plan ADOP was created to better support Paralympic competitors in their quest to qualify for the Games.
In Madrid, you can be licensed by FMDMF for an eighteen sports including athletics, swimming, wheelchair basketball, canoeing, badminton, wheelchair tennis, boccia, table tennis, diving, archery, cycling, sports shooting, fencing, sailing, alpine skiing, powerchair soccer and powerlifting.
[20] There are two major funding bodies for disabled sports in Spain, ONCE and the Consejo Superior de Deportes.
