Deaflympics facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Deaflympics Games

Comité International des Sports des Sourds
Deaflympics Logo
Motto	PER LUDOS AEQUALITAS (Equality through sport)
First event	1924; 101 years ago (1924) in Paris, France – 1924 Summer Deaflympics
Occur every	4 years
Last event	2024 in Erzurum, Turkey – 2024 Winter Deaflympics (Winter)
Next event	2025 Summer Deaflympics, Tokyo, Japan
Purpose	Provision of opportunities for deaf persons to participate in elite sports
Website

The Deaflympics are special sports events where Deaf athletes from all over the world compete. They are like the Olympics or Paralympics, but made just for deaf people. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) supports these games.

What makes the Deaflympics different? Athletes cannot use sounds to help them. This means no starting pistols for races or referee whistles in games. Instead, they use visual signals. For example, a flag might be waved to start a football game, or a light signal might start a race on the track. Also, instead of clapping, fans wave both hands in the air to show applause!

The Comité International des Sports des Sourds (CISS), which means "The International Committee of Sports for the Deaf," has organized these games since 1924.

History of the Deaflympics

The Deaflympics happen every four years. They are one of the oldest multi-sport events in history, second only to the Olympics! The very first games were held in Paris, France, in 1924. This was the first time an international sports event was held for athletes with a disability.

The games have been held every four years since then, except during World War II. In 1949, the Deaflympic Winter Games were added. The first games started small, with 148 athletes from nine European countries. They were called the "International Silent Games." Today, the Deaflympics are a huge global event!

Over the years, the name of the games changed a few times. From 1924 to 1965, they were called the "International Games for the Deaf." From 1966 to 1999, they were known as the "World Games for the Deaf." Since 2001, they have been called the Deaflympics.

To join the games, athletes must have a hearing loss of at least 55 dB in their better ear. To make sure everyone competes fairly, athletes are not allowed to use Hearing aids or cochlear implants during the competitions.

After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (ICSD) decided that athletes from Russia and Belarus could not compete in the 2022 Deaflympics in Caxias do Sul, Brazil.

Host Nations and Cities

Many cities around the world have hosted the Summer Deaflympic Games. So far, 24 cities in 20 different countries have been hosts. Only six of these cities were outside Europe. These include Washington, D.C. (1965), Los Angeles (1985), Christchurch (1989), Melbourne (2005), Taipei (2009), and Caxias do Sul (2022). The most recent summer games were in Caxias do Sul, Brazil, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2022.

The Winter Deaflympic Games have been held in 17 cities across 12 countries. The last winter games were in Erzurum, Turkey, in 2019. The next summer games are planned for Tokyo, Japan, from November 15 to 26, 2025.

Sometimes, hosting the games can be tricky. For example, the 2011 Winter Games, which were supposed to be in Vysoké Tatry, Slovakia, had to be cancelled. This happened because the people organizing the games were not ready to host them. The International Committee of Deaf Sports (ICSD) worked to get back money that was supposed to be used for the games. The president of the Slovak organizing committee was even sentenced to prison for misusing funds. The ICSD President, Craig Crowley, said he was very sorry for the cancellation to all the athletes.

Here are the cities that have hosted the Summer and Winter Deaflympics:

List of Summer Deaflympics Hosts

Games	Year	Host	Opened by	Dates	Nations	Competitors			Sports	Events	Top Nation
						Total	Men	Women
1	1924	Paris, France	Gaston Doumergue	10–17 August	9	148	147	1	6	31	France
2	1928	Amsterdam, Netherlands	Wilhelmina of the Netherlands	18–26 August	10	212	198	14	5	38	Great Britain
3	1931	Nuremberg, Weimar Republic	Paul von Hindenburg	19–23 August	14	316	288	28	6	43	Germany
4	1935	London, Great Britain	George V	17–24 August	12	221	178	43	5	41	Great Britain
5	1939	Stockholm, Sweden	Gustaf V	24–27 August	13	250	208	42	6	43	Great Britain
6	1949	Copenhagen, Denmark	Frederik IX of Denmark	12–16 August	14	391	342	49	7	51	Great Britain
7	1953	Brussels, Belgium	Baudouin of Belgium	15–19 August	16	473	432	41	7	57	Germany
8	1957	Milan, Italy	Giovanni Gronchi	25–30 August	25	635	565	70	9	69	Soviet Union
9	1961	Helsinki, Finland	Urho Kekkonen	6–10 August	24	613	503	110	10	94	Soviet Union
10	1965	Washington, D.C., United States	Lyndon B. Johnson	27 June – 3 July	27	687	575	112	9	85	Soviet Union
11	1969	Belgrade, Yugoslavia	Josip Broz Tito	9–16 August	33	1189	964	225	12	105	Soviet Union
12	1973	Malmö, Sweden	Gustaf VI Adolf	21–28 August	31	1116	893	223	11	97	United States
13	1977	Bucharest, Romania	Nicolae Ceauşescu	17–27 July	32	1150	913	237	11	106	United States
14	1981	Cologne, West Germany	Helmut Schmidt	23 July – 1 August	32	1198	893	305	11	110	United States
15	1985	Los Angeles, United States	Ronald Reagan	10–20 August	29	995	745	250	11	96	United States
16	1989	Christchurch, New Zealand	David Lange	7–17 January	30	955	726	229	12	120	United States
17	1993	Sofia, Bulgaria	Zhelyu Zhelev	24 July – 2 August	52	1679	1295	384	12	126	United States
18	1997	Copenhagen, Denmark	John M. Lovett	13–26 July	65	2028	1496	534	14	140	United States
19	2001	Rome, Italy	Carlo Azeglio Ciampi	22 July – 1 August	67	2208	1562	646	14	143	United States
20	2005	Melbourne, Australia	Marigold Southey	5–16 January	63	2038	1402	636	14	147	Ukraine
21	2009	Taipei, Chinese Taipei 1	Ma Ying-jeou	5–15 September	80	2670	1714	779	17	177	Russia
22	2013	Sofia, Bulgaria2	Rosen Plevneliev	26 July – 4 August2	83	2711	1792	919	16	2032	Russia
23	2017	Samsun, Turkey	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan	18–30 July	97	2856	1897	959	18	219	Russia
24	2022	Caxias do Sul, Brazil	First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro	1–15 May 20223	71	1489	1022	467	183	2193	Ukraine
25	2025	Tokyo, Japan		15–26 November

¹ The Republic of China (Taiwan) is recognised as Chinese Taipei by CISS and the majority of international organisations it participates in due to political considerations and Cross-Strait relations with the People's Republic of China.

² The marathon had been held 4 days before the opening ceremonies in Füssen, Germany on 21 July 2013.

³ Due to the COVID-19 Global Pandemic, the Summer Deaflympics that were to be held in December 2021 have been postponed until May 2022 and due the small number of venues near Caxias do Sul and Brazil and a low number of participants, the bowling events were transferred to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and were held between 20 and 30 October 2022.

List of Winter Deaflympics Hosts

Games	Year	Host	Opened by	Dates	Nations	Competitors			Sports	Events	Top Nation
						Total	Men	Women
1	1949	Seefeld, Austria		26–30 February	5	33	33	0	2	5	Switzerland
2	1953	Oslo, Norway		20–24 February	6	44	42	2	4	9	Norway
3	1955	Oberammergau, West Germany		10–13 February	8	59	54	5	4	11	Norway
4	1959	Montana-Vermala, Switzerland		27–31 January	10	42			3	14	Norway
5	1963	Åre, Sweden		12–16 March	9	60			2	13	Austria
6	1967	Berchtesgaden, West Germany		20–25 February	12	89			2	11	Norway
7	1971	Adelboden, Switzerland		25–30 February	13	145			2	11	Switzerland
8	1975	Lake Placid, United States		2–8 February	13	136			4	12	Canada
9	1979	Méribel, France		21–27 January	14	180			3	12	Soviet Union
10	1983	Madonna di Campiglio, Italy		13–23 January	15	147			3	17	Soviet Union
11	1987	Oslo, Norway		7–14 February	15	169			3	18	Norway
12	1991	Banff, Canada		2–9 March	16	175			5	18	Soviet Union
13	1995	Ylläs, Finland		14–19 March	18	260			4	15	Russia
14	1999	Davos, Switzerland		6–14 March	18	273			5	17	Russia
15	2003	Sundsvall, Sweden		26 February – 9 March	21	259			4	23	Russia
16	2007	Salt Lake City, United States		1–10 February	23	302			5	26	Russia
17	2011	Vysoké Tatry, Slovakia		16–28 February	Cancelled
18	2015	Khanty-Mansiysk and Magnitogorsk, Russia		28 March – 5 April	27	344			5	31	Russia
19	2019	Sondrio Province, Italy		12–21 December	34	461			6	36	Russia
20	2023	Erzurum, Turkey		2–12 March 2024	36	598			6	36	Ukraine

All-Time Medal Table

This section shows which countries have won the most medals in the Deaflympics over the years.

Summer Deaflympics Medals

This table lists all the medals won at the Summer Deaflympics from 1924 to 2021.

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total 1  United States 375 321 363 1,059 2  Russia 237 206 223 666 3  Soviet Union 173 124 108 405 4  Ukraine 166 175 170 511 5  West Germany 121 121 120 362 6  Iran 105 81 92 278 7  Italy 92 95 119 306 8  South Korea 79 73 62 214 9  Japan 79 73 60 212 10  France 74 93 97 264 11  Great Britain 68 85 95 248 12  Sweden 64 80 61 205 13  Germany 52 94 93 239 14  Hungary 51 48 42 141 15  Finland 49 51 47 147 16  Denmark 47 40 54 141 17  China 46 34 44 124 18  Australia 45 28 31 104 19  Poland 44 76 84 204 20  Turkey 42 51 80 173 21  Belarus 37 48 24 109 22  South Africa 35 17 10 62 23  Netherlands 33 35 29 97 24  Norway 32 28 25 85 25 Chinese Taipei 31 48 50 129 26  Canada 31 41 37 109 27  India 26 9 21 56 28  Yugoslavia 24 13 21 58 29  Kenya 21 20 25 66 30  Czech Republic 20 12 15 47 31  Ireland 16 15 11 42 32  Bulgaria 15 43 51 109 33  Belgium 15 29 41 85 34  Lithuania 15 22 30 67 35  Venezuela 14 13 27 54 36  Cuba 14 6 12 32 37  Estonia 12 8 15 35 38  Switzerland 9 16 16 41 39  Greece 7 11 13 31 40  Kazakhstan 7 8 26 41 41  East Germany 7 8 8 23 42  Croatia 7 6 3 16 43  Portugal 7 4 6 17 44  Romania 6 9 14 29 45  Latvia 5 7 4 16 46  New Zealand 5 6 7 18 47  Slovakia 5 5 5 15 48  Malaysia 3 11 4 18 49  Czechoslovakia 3 7 9 19 50  Mexico 3 3 3 9 51  Puerto Rico 3 0 1 4 52  Mongolia 2 6 14 22 53  Austria 2 6 8 16 54  Slovenia 2 2 3 7 55  Singapore 2 1 1 4 56  Spain 1 5 7 13 57  Argentina 1 4 5 10 58  Colombia 1 2 2 5 59  Brazil 1 1 13 15 60  Algeria 1 1 3 5 61  Dominican Republic 1 1 0 2  Ecuador 1 1 0 2 63  Macau 1 0 1 2  Thailand 1 0 1 2  United Arab Emirates 1 0 1 2 66  Chile 1 0 0 1 67  Kyrgyzstan 0 2 9 11 68  Georgia 0 2 1 3  Nigeria 0 2 1 3 70  Armenia 0 1 10 11 71  Indonesia 0 1 3 4  Serbia 0 1 3 4 73  Moldova 0 1 1 2 74  Iceland 0 1 0 1 75  Uzbekistan 0 0 4 4 76  Israel 0 0 3 3  Saudi Arabia 0 0 3 3 78  Cyprus 0 0 1 1  Egypt 0 0 1 1  Hong Kong 0 0 1 1  Turkmenistan 0 0 1 1 Totals (81 entries) 2,496 2,498 2,709 7,703

Winter Deaflympics Medals This table shows all the medals won at the Winter Deaflympics from 1949 to 2023. Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total 1  Russia 53 40 42 135 2  Norway 48 36 40 124 3  Soviet Union 24 26 21 71 4  Austria 23 26 27 76 5  Italy 22 14 16 52 6  United States 21 29 34 84 7  Finland 21 21 20 62 8  Switzerland 20 29 24 73 9  Czech Republic 18 9 6 33 10  Canada 18 8 8 34 11  Ukraine 14 19 13 46 12  Germany 13 19 30 62 13  France 11 17 15 43 14  China 10 8 11 29 15  Japan 8 6 6 20 16  Australia 6 4 1 11 17  Poland 5 5 1 11 18  Sweden 2 15 10 27 19  Slovakia 2 5 0 7 20  Slovenia 2 2 3 7 21  Great Britain 2 2 2 6 22  Croatia 1 1 4 6 23  Kazakhstan 1 0 1 2 24  Iran 1 0 0 1  Israel 1 0 0 1  Latvia 1 0 0 1  Spain 1 0 0 1 28  South Korea 0 2 3 5 29  Hungary 0 1 2 3 30  Brazil 0 1 1 2  Yugoslavia 0 1 1 2 32  Lithuania 0 1 0 1 33  Serbia 0 0 1 1  Turkey 0 0 1 1 Totals (34 entries) 349 347 344 1,040

Sports at the Deaflympics

Many different sports are part of the Deaflympics, both in the summer and winter games.

Summer Deaflympics Sports

Here are the sports that have been played at the Summer Deaflympic Games:

Winter Deaflympics Sports

Here are the sports that have been played at the Winter Deaflympic Games:

See also

In Spanish: Sordolimpiadas para niños

• Disabled sports