11 Jan Irish athletes to take part in Deaflympics in Bulgaria
Irish athletes to take part in Deaflympics in Bulgaria
Deaf Sports Ireland has kicked off the year by beginning preparations for this July’s Summer Deaflympics, which will be held in Sofia, Bulgaria. Irish teams hoping to qualify include tennis, badminton and swimming with the Irish Deaf Men’s football team having already qualified for the games.
The Deaflympics opening ceremony will take place on Fri the 26th of July, with the closing ceremony falling on Sun the 4th of August. The Summer Deaflympics were first held in Paris in 1924 as the International Silent Games, a full 22 years before the Paralympics, rendering them the second oldest multiple sporting event worldwide. Four years ago, records were broken when 10,000 volunteers were involved and 4081 people participated in the games. This included officials as well as athletes, and it is expected that this record will be broken once again this summer.
For updates, please visit http://deafsportsireland.com/sports/deaflympics