Comité International des Sports des Sourds

CISS, now also called ICSD, is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland.

History

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.