Ildikó Balatoni¹, Tímea Kiss¹, László Csernoch²
Ildikó Balatoni - balatoni@med.unideb.hu

1. Medical Center and Department of Physiology,
2. Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Hungary
   
   

Although doctors and teachers in Hungary recognized the rehabilitative value of sport as early as 1929, the Sports Association for the Disabled was not established until 1970.
The first sports were table tennis, archery, chess, sitting volleyball, and later swimming, nine-pin bowling and small-field soccer.
The first Hungarian disabled athlete to officially represent Hungary abroad in 1975.
In 1977, the National Board of Physical Education and Sports established the Sports Committees for the Hearing, Visually Impaired and Disabled, and this decision started the process of official state recognition and regular, albeit insufficient, annual state funding. Our country has only been a member of an international sports organization since 1983.
In the early 1980s, national sports associations were formed in the major cities and the system of national championships per sport was introduced. It was also the period when the national youth system began to be consciously developed.
The introduction of championship systems by sport multiplied the opportunities for national competition and also brought about a qualitative change in the sport concerned. In the clubs, training under the guidance of professionals, carried out in a conscious and regular manner, began to take foot.
The first championships in Hungary for people with disability were held in 1986 in the sport of sitting volleyball. This was the first time that the public was widely informed about a world event for disabled athletes. Following the event, other sports associations for people with disabilities were formed.
In 1989, the Hungarian Sports Association for the Disabled was formed with 16 sports associations then operating in the country. In the same year, the Hungarian Olympic Committee admitted the Hungarian Disabled Sports Association as a full member.
In 1993 the Hungarian Sports Association for the Mentally Disabled was founded, and in 1994 the Hungarian Sports Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
In 1997 the national sports associations established their main joint organisation, the Hungarian Paralympic Committee.
From 1998 onwards, the organisation became a budgetary factor, from which time it has been politically recognised and has been supported by state funding.
Also in 1998, the political leadership of the time created the Deputy State Secretariat for Sport for the Disabled in the Ministry of Youth and Sport. This decision triggered a leap forward in the development of para-sport in Hungary, raising it to an internationally recognised level.
2004 Sports Act extended the system of rewards and allowances for Olympians to Paralympians.

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