Seoul holds start-up ceremony for 2015 IBSA World Games

Organizers of the 5th International Blind Sports Federation World Championship and Games held a start-up ceremony for the games in the host city Seoul on Tuesday.

The Seoul 2015 IBSA World Games will kick off on May 8, 2015, for an 11-day run in different venues in the capital city. The opening and closing ceremonies will be held at Jamsil Indoor Stadium.

During the ceremony held at Seoul City Club in Yeouido, they appointed actor Kim Bo-sung and actress Ku Hye-sun as goodwill ambassadors for the games. Kim has a slight visual disability.

Organizers pledged to stage a sports event for blind and visually impaired athletes that will also appeal to the nondisabled. 

“I hope this Games will serve as an opportunity to raise public awareness about people with disabilities and also will give athletes the chance and courage to stand on their own feet,” Sohn Byung-doo, president of the organizing committee, said.

“We will try our best to make the Games an event where people with and without disabilities will achieve harmony.”

Under the slogan of “See with Passion, Run with Hope,” the quadrennial event will bring together 6,000 athletes from 80 different countries to compete in nine disciplines, including soccer, judo, swimming and athletics.

Launched by the IBSA, a nonprofit organization founded in 1981 to enable the full integration of visually impaired people into society through sports, the inaugural meet took place in Madrid, Spain, in 1998.

The last edition was hosted in Antalaya, Turkey, with more than 1,100 athletes from 71 countries participating.

By Ahn Sung-mi (sahn@heraldcorp.com)