ICSD ? CISS ? DEAFLYMPICS ?? Which One?

Some confusion has resulted from the use of ICSD (International Committee of Sports for the Deaf) to identify our organization.  What happened to DEAFLYMPICS?

At the Melbourne Congress in January 2005, many changes were passed in our Constitution to change the name of our organization from CISS (Comité International des Sports des Sourds) to DEAFLYMPICS, pending approval of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).  

Then, in the summer of 2005, the IOC reminded us that their permission to use “Deaflympics” only applied as a substitute for “World Games for the Deaf” and that we could not use it in any other way.  We were unable to persuade them to change this so we had to change our name back to CISS.

However, since our organization is incorporated with a home office in the United States (USA), our name must be in English, so we now use the English translation of CISS.  This is similar to the case of the IOC which is also known as the CIO.  Our legal name is now International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (ICSD) in English and also Comité International des Sports des Sourds (CISS) in French.

We hope that this explanation removes all confusion.  Nothing has changed except that our name has gone back to ICSD/CISS.  We hope that at some future date, the IOC/CIO will be more flexible in allowing us greater use of the term "Deaflympics".

Jerald M. Jordan
Chairman,
Legal Commission

By Jerald Jordan