"To provide the opportunity for individuals with disabilities to gain confidence and dignity through participation in sports, recreation and related educational programs."
A national nonprofit, 501(c)(3), organization
established in 1967 by disabled Vietnam veterans to serve
the war injured. DS/USA now offers nationwide sports rehabilitation
programs to anyone with a permanent disability. Activities
include winter skiing, water sports, summer and winter competitions,
fitness and special sports events. Participants include those
with visual impairments, amputations, spinal cord injury,
dwarfism, multiple sclerosis, head injury, cerebral palsy,
and other neuromuscular and orthopedic conditions.
A
Wide Variety of Recreational Opportunities
Disabled Sports USA is a nation-wide
network of community-based chapters offering a variety of
recreation programs. Each chapter sets its own agenda and
activities. These may include one or more of the following:
snow skiing; water sports (such as water skiing, sailing,
kayaking, and rafting); cycling; climbing; horseback riding;
golf; and social activities.
Rehabilitation professionals and even
the Federal Government recognize the importance of sports
and recreation in the successful rehabilitation of individuals
with disabilities. When first faced with the reality of a
disability, many experience a loss of confidence, depression,
and believe their lives have ended. They are often alienated
from family and friends because there are no shared positive
experiences. Sports and recreation offers the opportunity
to achieve success in a very short time period; to use this
success to build self-confidence and focus on possibilities
instead of dwelling on what can no longer be done. The ability
to participate in a sport, such as cycling; skiing; and sailing,
to name a few, provides the opportunity to reunite with family
and friends in a shared activity.
As
an extension of the rehabilitation process, Disabled Sports
USA offers competitive programs
in summer and winter sports. Competition improves sports skills.
It allows individuals to experience the excitement of competition
and the thrill of victory, as well as the agony of defeat.
These experiences help prepare individuals after rehabilitation
to face the adversity of a disability in their lives and to
learn to bounce back in the face of challenge and change.
As a member of the United States Olympic
Committee, DS/USA sanctions and conducts competitions and
training camps to prepare and select athletes to represent
the United States at the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games.
The Paralympic Games are the Olympic equivalent competitions
for individuals with disabilities and are recognized by the
International Olympic Committee. For those who want to achieve
their highest potential, opportunities are available for national
and international competitions in alpine and nordic skiing,
track and field, volleyball, swimming, cycling, powerlifting,
and other sports. The highest achieving athletes in each sport
can qualify for the Paralympics.
Disabled Sports USA was founded in 1967
by disabled Vietnam veterans. It was then called the National
Amputee Skiers Association. In 1972 the National Amputee Skiers
Association (NASA) was broadening its mission. No longer solely
serving skiers, NASA needed a new name. They chose to call
themselves the National Inconvenienced Sportsmen's Association.
In 1976, NISA became the National Handicapped Sports and Recreation
Association. The NHSRA name stuck until 1992 when the organization
was renamed to National Handicapped Sports. In October 1994,
after polling the organization's 80+ chapters and affiliates,
the National Board of Directors approved the most recent name
change to Disabled Sports USA.
According to Executive Director Kirk
Bauer, "Disabled Sports USA" was selected for the following
reasons:
- The word "disabled" brought the organization
in line with current language used by the federal government.
"Disabled" has become more universally accepted than "handicapped."
- Disabled Sports USA has become an organization
of global importance. Disabled Sports USA fields teams to
compete in the World Championships for track and field,
cycling, volleyball, and swimming. It is now necessary to
use "USA" rather than "National" to reflect this change
in scope.
- Almost all of the US Olympic Committee-member
National Governing Bodies for able-body sports have "US"
or "USA" within their name (such as USA Basketball, US Skiing,
and USA Volleyball). Disabled Sports USA is a Disabled Sports
Organization member of the U. S. Olympic Committee.
Kirk Bauer has devoted 38 years of service to Disabled Sports USA. The first 12 years as a volunteer and the last 26 as its executive director. Bauer knows firsthand what it is like to face the challenges of disability. As a non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Army, Bauer lost a leg from a hand grenade during an ambush while serving in the Ninth Combat Infantry Division in Vietnam in 1969. During his service in Vietnam, Bauer was twice awarded the Bronze Star for heroism; the Army Commendation Medal with Valor Device; and the Purple Heart for injuries sustained in combat.
As DS/USA’s executive director, he has taken a small, all volunteer organization, and made it the nation’s largest sports and recreation organization for physically disabled individuals, with more than 98 chapters nationwide, serving 60,000 people annually.
Recognized for his lifelong work, Bauer received a Presidential Appointment to serve on The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports and recently was appointed Vice Chair for 2009. He was also named by President Bush to the first Presidential Delegation ever assembled to represent the USA at foreign Paralympic Games, when he attended the Winter Paralympic Games in Torino, Italy. In 2008, he was again appointed by President Bush to the Presidential Delegation attending the 2008 Summer Paralympic Games in Beijing, China.
Bauer has been featured on such programs as HBO "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel"; ESPN "Outside the Lines"; NBC Nightly News "Making A Difference"; CBS Early Show; National Public Television and National Public Radio and Armed Forces Network.
His most recent accomplishment was to establish the Wounded Warrior Disabled Sports Project. Since 2003, when the war in Iraq was declared, DS/USA has provided free sports rehabilitation instruction in 16 different sports to the severely wounded service men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, with amputations, spinal and head injury and blindness. The program was designed by Bauer based on his experiences with sport when he returned from Vietnam in 1969.
Bauer, recently named one of the top 25 innovators and influencers in the sports community by SportsEvents Magazine, has many accomplishments including establishing the first nationwide fitness exercise program for disabled individuals (“Fitness Is For Everyone” sm) and the first nationwide instructor training and certification program for snow ski instructors seeking expertise on disabled skiing. He also introduced the first nationwide program to work with parents of disabled children to ensure their children’s rights to physical education in the classroom.
Bauer led the fight for the full inclusion of athletes with disabilities in the Olympic Movement; culminating in the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act Amendments of 1998, recognizing Paralympic athletes as full members of the U.S. Olympic Committee.
For all his accomplishments, Bauer has previously been awarded the 1998 Gene Autrey Courage Award (1997 honors went to baseball great, Sammy Sosa). He was also selected as the 1986 “Healthy American Fitness Leader”, an honor presented yearly by the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. This award has been given to such fitness notables as Jack LaLanne, Kathy Smith, Dr. Kenneth Cooper, and Richard Simmons. He also served on the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities and the U.S. Olympic Committee. Recently, in December 2008, Bauer was awarded the “George M. Steinbrenner III Sports Leadership Award” by the US Olympic Committee in recognition of his outstanding contribution to sports.
Bauer became involved with Disabled Sports USA’s programs when introduced to skiing by fellow Vietnam veterans while undergoing rehabilitation in Letterman U.S. Army Hospital. He became an outstanding ski racer, winning medals in national competitions from 1972 to 1980. In 1979, he was selected for the U.S. Disabled Ski Team. In addition, Bauer became one of the first disabled ski instructors to be fully certified by the Professional Ski Instructors of America. He was the first ski instructor for Diana Golden, who became a World Champion disabled skier, after she lost her leg at the age of 12.
A native of Oakland, California, Bauer received a B.A. degree in political science from the University of California at Berkeley, and a law degree from Boston University. After graduating from law school in 1978, Bauer worked as a legislative aide in the U.S. Congress before assuming his present role as DS/USA executive director in 1982.
As a member of the “Over 60 Gang,” Bauer is active in skiing, running, biking, hiking, and swimming. In 1999, he successfully completed the Marine Corps Marathon, his first, and won the 2000 Boston Marathon, in the “Mobility Impaired” class. In 2008, at the age of 60, Bauer completed the Bataan Memorial Death March, where over 4,000 mostly active military march through the desert of White Sands Missile Range New Mexico on a 26 mile course.
It is the position of DS/USA that the Disabled
Sports Organizations (DSOs) be appropriately funded by the
US Olympic Committee (USOC) to conduct development programs
necessary to produce athletes for the National Governing Bodies
(NGBs).
DS/USA supports the vertical integration
of disabled athletes into the NGBs on an equal basis.
It is the goal of DS/USA that the USOC ultimately
become the National Policy Organization (NPO). The U.S. Disabled
Sports Team (USDST) will serve in that role until the USOC
can meet the requirements of the International Paralympic
Committee (IPC) through legislation or other means.
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