Last Updated: 19 March 2017

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Are complex of competitions and presentations of the skills and abilities of people. The official name, used in Slovakia and abroad is ABILYMPICS, it comes from the words ability and olympics, so the olympics of abilities.

Abilympics are not held only on national level but it is an international movement. International Abilympics Federation (IAF) associates numerous national abilympics federations all around the world and regularly organizes the international abilympics competitions.

Every four years international contestants have the opportunity to participate on this prestigious international event. Slovakia, as one of the member of the IAF, also took part on several editions.

The first International Abilympics (IA) was held in the 1981 in Japan. Thanks to good organization, high quality program and well-prepared contestants, the first IA was a great success.

After the first successful volume of the IA, the second edition was held in Bogota (Columbia) in 1985. After six years, the third IA was organized in Hong Kong. More than 2000 people with disabilities from 83 countries were participating on the event.

The fourth IA, which was held in Perth (Australia), was very important also for Slovakia. For the first time, the Slovak delegation took part at the international competition. We contributed with seven contestants that competed in 20 disciplines. Moreover, Slovakia was officially accepted as a new member of the IAF.

In 1997, our aim was to get nomination to organize next volume of the IA. Finally, colleagues from the Czech Republic were selected to host the fifth IA. In spite of this fact, we received positive feedback from the IAF that, as a small country and new member, we are able and enough flexible to organize such an huge event.

We participated on the fifth IA organized in Prague (Czech Republic) with 70 contestants. Our careful preparation was rewarded by 1 golden medal, 1 silver medal and 3 bronze medals. Moreover, we also got one 5-th and 7-th place.

The sixth IA took place in New Delhi (India) in 2003. Thanks to the support of our partners and sponsors (TV JOJ) we were able to participate with 14 contestants and the results were:

• 2-nd place in knitting
• 3-nd place in crocheting
• 3-rd place in batik printing
• 3-rd place in embroidery
• 4-rd place in arranging flowers
• 4-th place in english text editing
• 5-th place in making jewellery

 

Since the beginning of the IA - Slovakia has become a very successful participant. Together Slovakia has received 11 awards. The year 2007 was especially successful for us. In the country of the “rising sun” – Japan (town of Shizuoka) - participated 25 contestants from Slovakia. Our team was the most successful European team and Slovakia managed to leave an impression in the minds of many people. Rivals were strong and referees were strict. In Japan, we were the only country out of Asia that was awarded by a medal – bronze medal for embroidering.

South Korea was hosting the eight IA in 2011. The organization of the event in the city Soul was on very high level. The competition was also very strong. Even though, the Slovak delegation was successful. Thanks to our participant we won one bronze medal in hand knitting.

The ninth International Abilympics
The hosting country of the ninth IA is France. The venue of this event is set to Bordeaux and its motto is defined: „Common Skills, Uncommon People“. Our delegation will be formed by contestants that will be successful at national abilympics in 2014.