Paralympics New Zealand
Paralympics New Zealand is the national sports organisation for athletes with disabilities. It began in 1965 and encourages athletes with disabilities to compete at the international Paralympic Games. It provides a coaching development and accreditation scheme, organises national and international sport meets, and has a schools programme.
Winning gold
At the 2010 Vancouver Winter Paralympics New Zealand skier Adam Hall – born with spina bifida – recovered from a mid-race fall to win gold in the standup slalom.
Special Olympics New Zealand
This organisation was founded in 1983 for athletes with intellectual disability to boost their skills and confidence. In that year a team from New Zealand competed for the first time in the Special Olympics at Baton Rouge, in the US. The first national games were held in Lower Hutt in 1985. Athletes regularly compete at national and world summer games. In the 2010s there were about 7,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities training and competing throughout New Zealand.
Deaf Sport Federation of New Zealand
The Deaf Amateur Sports Association was formed in 1963 and became the Deaf Sport Federation of New Zealand in 2001. It is an affiliated member of the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf, and operates as an umbrella organisation for deaf sport associations including cricket, netball, golf, darts, indoor and lawn bowls, basketball and tenpin bowling. The annual New Zealand Deaf Games is the largest part of the Deaf Sport Federation of New Zealand. New Zealand hosted the 16th Deaflympics (World Games for the Deaf) in Christchurch in 1989.
