Ildikó Balatoni¹, Henrietta Szépné Varga¹, László Csernoch²

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

Ildikó Balatoni - balatoni@med.unideb.hu

The first unofficial foreign sporting medal - a bronze medal in the 60m wheelchair race - won by a Hungarian athlete was at the 1972 Paralympic Games in Heidelberg.
Hungarian athletes with disabilities represented Hungary abroad, first officially - with the permission of the sports authorities of the time - at the Solna Games in Sweden, and then at the 1975 Saint-Etienne World Games in France, a world competition with 23 countries.
Thanks to Hungary's success there, it received an official invitation to the 1976 Toronto Olympics.
Subsequently, Hungarian athletes have participated and achieved many successes and medals at the Summer Paralympic Games. In particular, our athletes stand out in swimming, wheelchair fencing, table tennis and athletics.
In the winter sports, Hungary has not achieved any major results, so the first Hungarian athlete to compete in the Winter Paralympics was in 2002.
The "Sport with us" children's competition movement, which invites 200-300 children with reduced mobility to take part in sport every year, started in 1984 and is still running today.
In 2017, Hungarian Parliament decided that every year 22 February is the "Hungarian Parasport Day". The choice of the date is symbolic: on this day in 1970, the first official Hungarian disabled sports association was founded.
The day also marks the launch and organisation of the "Soul Mover Programme", where kindergarten, primary and secondary school children, as well as students in higher education, can try out team sports in disability sports or take part in a sensory programme in physical education classes.
The organisers believe that the love of sport and the practice of para-sports help bring people with disabilities and able-bodied people closer together. Each year, nearly 600 institutions across the country join the “Soul Mover” programme.
Programme “Soul Mover” help to strengthen social acceptance of people with disabilities in Hungary.

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