On 12th June, 2015 the WKF could celebrate for a great success: the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Governing Board accepted the WKF as the 30th sport discipline within the Paralympic Family.
The journey began 8 years ago in Bavaria (Germany) at the occasion of the first "Bavarian Open for Persons with Disabilities". The by then President of the German Olympic Committee (DOSB) and currently IOC President Thomas Bach attended with enthusiasm the event accompanied by WKF President Antonio Espinós. Since then, the WKF has promoted this area and implemented with the former Chairman for Persons with Disabilities, Wolfgang Weigert, the first demonstration competition at the 2012 World Championships in Paris. This inaugural event was a success and after that, the first World Championships for Persons with Disabilities followed, integrated in the 2014 World Senior Championships in Bremen. This first World Championships were attended by a great number of national and international honourable guests, such as the Special Advisor on Sport for Development and Peace, Willi Lemke, which also highlighted the great performance of the WKF in this area. On this basis, the WKF could also prepare an excellent application to the IPC Governing Board.
At the IPC Session which will be held on 14th and 15th November 2015 in Mexico City, the recognition of WKF will be officially ratified and hereafter we will aim at joining as soon as possible the Paralympic Programme. From this moment, the WKF can call itself also a Paralympic Sport.
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
