History of the Hungarian Sports Federation for the Disabled
The Hungarian Sports Federation for the Disabled (MLMS) was founded in 1990. Its legal predecessor was the Committee for Physical Education and Sport for the Disabled established in 1977 upon the initiative of the National Institution for Physical Education and Sports (OTSH), similarly to the sport committees of organisations for the disabled, in order to coordinate the sporting activities of the disabled both in Hungary and abroad.
The sport for the disabled is rooted in health care everywhere in the world. Sporting activities had been available to the people with reduced mobility as early as the beginning of the 20th century, however, it was only after World War II that the large number of people with disabilities made sporting a treatment and rehabilitation method, especially among the injured treated in German, British and American hospitals.
In Hungary, institutional treatment and development for the disabled started in 1903 when the Home and Society for Disabled Children – later operating as a complex rehabilitation institute – was founded. The leaders of the home deemed sporting activities to be important, therefore they included them in the rehabilitation process.
Hungary's first sports organisation for the disabled, the Sports Club for the Disabled (NYSE) was established in 1929, also with an expressly medical objective, to help rehabilitation. Subsequent to World War II all organisations working for or founded by the disabled were banned or their operation was made impossible.
Until the 1970s only individual attempts were made to break through this "social shield". The birth of Hungarian organised sport for the disabled took place in the seventies. At that time individual sport clubs were founded one after the other in larger towns, and later on smaller settlements sport groups were formed within the associations aimed at protecting their interests.
History of the Hungarian Sports Federation for the Visually Impaired
In Hungary the soldiers who had lost their sight in World War I together with a group of the Civilian Blind established the Federation of the Blind in the autumn of 1918. The first section of the federation, the chess section was founded in 1950. The chess section was followed by the athletics section in 1957, the Wesselényi Sport Club in 1963 and the hiking section in 1965. The Wesselényi Miklós Sport Club for the Blind in 1976-77 organised for the first time a goalball team, following the demonstration of the team of Locse, so that they can join the competitions organised for the blind in the neighbouring countries.
The Hungarian Sports Federation for the Blind and Visually Impaired was founded in 1994, then it was working under the name of Hungarian Sports Federation for the Visually Impaired (MLS), until its merger with the Hungarian Sports Federation for the Disabled on 23 May 2009
The Hungarian Sports Federation for the Visually Impaired and the Disabled
The Hungarian Sports Federation for the Visually Impaired and the Disabled (MLMS) was established in 2009 as the legal successor of the Hungarian Sports Federation for the Disabled (MMS) merging with the Hungarian Sports Federation for the Visually Impaired.
Thus, now the same organisation represent the visually impaired and the disabled athletes.
The Chairman of the Federation is Norbert Növényi, Olympic Champion in Greco-Roman wrestling.
