PARTNER

Special Olympics Iceland

The Icelandic Sport federation for disabled (IF) was established 1979. Located in House of Sport in Laugardalur, Iceland, along with most sports federations of Iceland, IF is registered as a National Sport federation for disabled in Iceland under the umbrella of the National and Olympics Sport Organization in Iceland (ISI).

All IF´s athletes have to be registered in special sport clubs for the disabled or in mainstream clubs within ISI (The National Sport & Olympics Organization in Iceland). IF´s office has three staff members, including National Director SO Iceland, General Secretary, NPC Iceland. Other team members are volunteers.

The key role of IF is to organize sports for disabled in Iceland and to represent Iceland at events abroad, as umbrella for all disability sport in Iceland. The role of IF is as well to work on education, coach training, recruiting, developing new sports, providing advice and support to athletes, students, teachers, coaches, communities, Sport clubs, university & schools etc. IF is leading special projects for target groups, sport, schools, students, clubs, society etc.

IF is a member of the Special Olympics International movement and the International Olympics Committee, with SO Iceland and the National Paralympic Committee of Iceland sharing the same office. Iceland is leading the nordic SO committee since 2013. Some projects are combined as IF´s national events for all disability groups. NPC Iceland is leading preparation process of elite athlete participation internationally as European & World Champ/Paralympics. This system has been a very successful and it has been positive for Iceland to keep all sport for disabled athletes under one umbrella.

In this project, Special Olympics Iceland will be the first Special Olympics Program to pilot and evaluate the new training resources developed internationally by Special Olympics. Sports coach training in Iceland is of a very high standard and they are experts in the delivery of this training in inclusive settings. The piloting and evaluation of the Implementation Guide in Iceland will ensure that high quality training is passed onto the beneficiary partners in the project in the next phase. Special Olympics Iceland will work with their local research partner at Reykjavik University and the project partner, Poznan University, to conduct the necessary evaluation.