Comité International des Sports des Sourds

The early pioneers of the international deaf sports movement were Eugène Rubens-Alcais (France) and Antoine Dresse (Belgium). The first Summer Games were held in Paris in 1924, and started with 148 athletes from nine countries (France, Belgium, Great Britain, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia). The first Winter Games were instituted in 1949 at Seefeld, Austria. They attracted 33 athletes from five countries. In 1935, Japan joined CISS as the first Asian member and the United States as the first North American member. Australia and New Zealand joined later in 1955 as the first members from Oceania. The first African member was South Africa, in 1975. After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the CISS banned athletes from Russia and Belarus from that year's Deaflympics in Caxias do Sul, Brazil. ==Events==

Deaflympics The Deaflympics (previously called World Games for the Deaf, and International Games for the Deaf) are an International Olympic Committee (IOC)-sanctioned event at which deaf athletes compete at an elite level. World championships • World Deaf Badminton Championships • World Deaf Football Championships • World Deaf Volleyball Championships ==Presidents==

• 1924-1953: Eugène Rubens-Alcais • 1953-1955: Oscar Ryden • 1955-1961: Jens Peter Nielsen • 1961-1971: Pierre Bernhard • 1971-1995: Jerald M. Jordan • 1995-2003: John M. Lovett • 2003-2009: Donalda Ammons Kay • 2009-2013: Craig A. Crowley • 2013-2018: Valery Nikititch Rukhledev • 2019-2020: Chinese Taipei Kang Chen • 2021-2022: Gustavo de Araújo Perazzolo • 2022-present: Ádám Kósa ==See also==