Adaptive Sport
GSP’s Adaptive Sports program exists to promote awareness and create opportunities for persons with a disability to become involved in sport, recreation, and physical initiatives. These provide fulfillment, health, challenge, and self-expression in ways that instill dignity, are reproducible, and contribute to society. We work in close partnership with Paralympic Committees, Disabled Sports Federations, Handicap Centers, and other organizations to promote and coordinate sport activities from recreational sports camps to the Paralympic Games.
At Global Sports Partners, we prefer the term “Adaptive Sports” in our work with persons of various disabilities.
+ Rules and equipment are modified, or adapted, to accommodate capacities.
+ Persons with physical limitations adapt their techniques, according to their capabilities.
These adaptations enhance the participation of the disabled community: 650 Million persons worldwide.* Global Sports Partners works with Paralympic Committees and the Special Olympics in order to increase opportunity and participation, from the struggling novice to the elite Paralympic athlete.
GSP will forever champion the conviction that persons with disabilities are deserving of the same opportunities for sport enjoyment as able-bodied persons. Everyone is welcome, and all are encouraged to participate, promoting the concept of social inclusivity; the benefits of sport involvement are for everyone.
GSP focuses on two areas of disability:
1. Physical – Paralympic. Training for elite Para-Athletes and Adaptive Sports initiatives on appropriate levels.
2. Cognitive/Intellectual – Special Olympics. Games and Recreational Activities.
GSP Staff and Representatives have worked professionally with National Paralympic Committees, Disabled Sport Federations, Wheelchair Basketball, Sitting Volleyball, and ‘handicapped’ training programs. Additionally, we have been included in official delegations to the Paralympic Games in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004).
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*Approximately 10% of the world’s population—the world’s largest minority, according to the World Health Organization http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/facts.shtml
