Irish Blind Sports has been renamed as Vision Sport Ireland. The organisation is celebrating 25 years since its founding in Dublin in 1988. The change was marked yesterday at a ceremony in Dublin attended by Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Leo Varadkar and four time Paralympic gold medallist and World Champion, Jason Smyth.
“This is the start of a new era for vision impaired sports people in Ireland and I congratulate Vision Sports Ireland for reaching out to the community,” said Varadkar. “Sport can, and should, be open to everyone, and I know that this organisation is striving to provide access to activities right across the country.
“The Government continues to support this area and awarded €36,000 to Vision Sports Ireland through the Sports Council this year, in addition to support for elite athletes through Paralympics Ireland.”
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Vision Sports Ireland assists vision impaired people in Ireland, of all ages, to access sports at all levels, from leisure to elite, in their own communities where possible. The Organisation offers a range of sports, including tandem cycling, football, swimming, golf and athletics and hosts, both national and international competitions.
It hosted the European Blind Sports Championships at Belfield in 1993, and earlier this year ran the first MayFest celebrating a variety of sports and competitions. This is set to be repeated in May 2014 with activities centred around the ALSAA club near Dublin Airport.
Jason Smyth, a long-time Vision Sports Ireland member, had broken from his training in the States to demonstrate his support for the Organisation and “to reach out to more of the vision impaired community of Ireland.” Smyth retained his double Paralympic titles in the T13 100m and the T13 200m in London last year. He repeated the double at the World Championships in Lyon this year, setting a new championship record in the 100m.
At age 8 Smyth was diagnosed with Stargardt Disease which led to degeneration of his central vision to less than 10% eyesight. He made the switch from soccer to athletics at age 16 and six years later he won his first able bodied national title, the 2009 Athletics Ireland National 100m title. A year later he went on to become the first Paralympian to compete at IAAF European Athletics Championships.
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