For people
with any type of disability
Find out the sports structure and educational structure
in your country! Check their websites and find all
the information about sportclubs, activities, lists
of schools and much more!
Sports
Sports Structure
In Austria there are three big umbrella sports organisations (ASKÖ, ASVÖ, UNION) and also many sports federations for every kind of sports, like The Austrian Ski Federation, etc.
The Austrian Sports Federation for the disabled (ÖBSV) , which was founded 1958, is legally not assigned to one of these organisations, but all are members of the National Sports Organisation (BSO). In each of the umbrella organisations associations exists for several disability sports disciplines and these clubs may also be members in the Sports Federation for the disabled (ÖBSV).
The advantage of this cooperation is a financial aspect and the exchange of infrastructure, coaches, knowledge and specialists.
ÖBSV is the head of 6 groups representing the disability-based classification and 9 regional federations according to the 9 federal states of Austria. At the moment ÖBSV offers about 40 different kinds of sports for a total of 6800 members.
Regional Federations according to the federal states with own websites
Carinthia
Styria
Tyrol
Vorarlberg
Upper Austria
The regional federations are autonomously organized and they are responsible for regular sports and training offers in their sport clubs – either on recreational or competitive level for all disabilities. About 75 clubs and 13 sections are existing on local level.
Disability Representative Groups with own websites
Sport for Hearing Impaired
Sport for People with Cerebral Palsy
Additionally to the regional federations and the sports clubs these groups coordinate the requirements of the different disabilities: Amputation and Les Autres, Blind and Visual Impairment, Cerebral Palsy, Wheelchair Sport, Intellectual Disability and Hearing Impairment. They are mainly responsible for sports on recreational level, for classification and for disability specific sports, i.e. boccia for CP, goalball for blind, wheelchair basketball, etc. and therefore they advise the regional federations and sports clubs. Two years ago the group of the persons with hearing impairments wanted to get independent of the ÖBSV and is now organized separately in the Austrian Deaf Sports Federation.
Because of the increasing demands and professionalism in the elite sport the ÖBSV started to establish sport representative groups, which are responsible for the different sports but independent from disability groups. Actually there are groups for swimming and skiing, cycling, athletics, table tennis and shooting is planned in the near future.
On a national and regional level there are several kinds of cooperation between disabled and non-disabled structures. The federations/organisations share training spaces, use common personnel and facilities, common medical care and others. But actually there are only four sports associations which have an own section of disability sports:
In each of the general sports federations there is an officer who is responsible for sports of the disabled. These sections are mostly organised independently from the Sports Federation for the Disabled (ÖBSV).
Ski: all members of the Austrian Disabled Ski team are members of the ÖSV, this section is running independently from ÖBSV.
Wheelchair tennis: All players are members of the Austrian Tennis Federation, and they are also independent from ÖBSV.
Cycling and Fistball: The ÖRV and the ÖFBB have an own section for disabled sport within their federations.
Since the last election there has been a cabinet reshuffle, and the Ministry of Sports is not existing any more. Now the sport section is represented in the Austrian Federal Chancellery. The Austrian Sports Federation for the Disabled (ÖBSV) is partly financed by this section. They also established lottery scratch tickets, which enabled the Sports Federation to start many projects for improvement of the offers of sports activities and events for people with disabilities. The endorsement for disabled sports is free of tax since the year 2003.
The Austrian Paralympic Committee (ÖPC) was founded a few years ago to support the elite competitive sport, which means the preparation of the paralympic games and other international competitions, like World and European championships. This support includes sponsorship, marketing, financing and organizing the paralympic games.
The Special Olympic Committee is a completely self-contained organization with it's own administration. They organize their training opportunities and their competitions by themselves.
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