After a successful first edition last year, the 2nd IHF Wheelchair Handball Seminar is just one week away. During the seminar, held online from 4 to 5 September, wheelchair handball experts from around the world will deliver valuable knowledge about the world of wheelchair handball.

The goal of the series is to inform, attract and motivate the global handball community as much as possible, and for National Federations and individuals that are both active and inactive in the discipline to learn more about the current wheelchair handball conditions.

Why should you attend the Seminar? Well, we have some reasons just in case you are on the fence.

1. Inclusiveness

Handball is a beautiful sport, and the beauty of it is that it can be played by virtually everyone. The first event featuring wheelchair handball took place in Kyoto, Japan, in 1990, with the first regular annual wheelchair competition being held also in Japan, 11 years later. The upward trend for the sport gained momentum and in 2018, upon a proposal from IHF President Dr Hassan Moustafa, the IHF Council unanimously agreed to form a working group for wheelchair handball with IHF Council and IHF Executive Committee Member Dr Frantisek Taborsky being nominated as its Chairman.

”Wheelchair handball is incorporated in the slogan ‘Handball for All’. Handball without any borders worldwide. No limits concerning age, gender, physical condition and geography.

“Wheelchair handball is an inclusive sport in its essence. People of all abilities help a lot in the logistics of training, in competition through transport, for example. In training everyone often gets involved in the game as well,” said Dr Frantisek Taborsky, Chairman of the IHF Wheelchair Handball Working Group.

Therefore, with wheelchair handball becoming more and more important, you could learn more about the sport and help grow the handball community to make it as inclusive as possible.

2. You’ll hear from the leading wheelchair handball experts in the world

Leading experts, from Dr Taborsky, to Danilo Ferreira, Martijn Dokkum, Flávio Melo, Daniel Magalhaes, Marc de Sousa, Christian Kaschütz and Vicenç Bretó, will discuss the most important aspects of wheelchair handball, from the recruitment of players, to training and also the recruitment and development of referees and technical delegates.

The Seminar will be held in two blocks of two hours, starting at 13:00 CEST and will be streamed live on the IHF Facebook page as well as on Zoom, where translation will be available into Arabic, French and Spanish.

3. Build a brand for a new Paralympic sport

As the Paralympic Games in Tokyo are now in full fledge, plans have been set in motion to request the inclusion of the sport in the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympic Games.

“We want to be included in the LA 2028 Paralympic Games. It’s a long way to go but we are working hard to reach this goal. I want to ask all of our National Federations to react to the IHF goal of creating wheelchair handball in their countries, so we have the sport to promote, to be able to fulfil the criteria for inclusion in the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympic programme and fulfil our vision,” said IHF President  Dr Hassan Moustafa.

In 2022, the IHF aims to organise the postponed 1st IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship (six-a-side) as well as the 1st IHF Men’s and Women’s Wheelchair Handball World Championships (four-a-side) in a South and Central America Handball Confederation country. The aim is to have 25 National Federations boast an active approach to wheelchair handball and unlock the possibility of becoming a full member of the International Paralympic Committee.

The second IHF Wheelchair Handball Seminar can be a beacon of light, spreading the importance of the sport between National Federations and players who are now unable to express themselves on the court.

For more information about the Seminar including the programme, click here. For more information about wheelchair handball, click here.

Photo: Portuguese Handball Federation