On date 12 th November 2009, the representatives of Great Britain, Italy, Mexico, Portugal and South Africa have officially created the International Athletic Association for Persons with Down Syndrome (IAADS); in the same date the Statute was officially approved. This new international organization wants to give a new opportunity of competitive sport to the athletes with down syndrome.
Headquarter of the Federation has been established in Rome, where the General Secretariat will be located.
Wednesday May 16th 2012. Terceira, The Portuguese Azores.
Following a consultation process with the sports of Athletics, Swimming, Football and Gymnastics it was agreed to support the formation of a new Union to co-ordinate the programme for the existing international sports organisations of:
- International Athletics Association for athletes with Down Syndrome www.IAADS.org
- Down Syndrome International Swimming Organisation www.DSISO.org
- Football International Federation for players with Down Syndrome
- Down Syndrome International Gymnastics Organisation
The Union will also be able to co-ordinate the programme for all the Sports .
Two new sports of Judo and Table Tennis will hold International Championships in Portugal in 2014.
In time SU-DS will be joined by other sports and at this time discussions are taking place for Tennis and Sailing. Each sport will retain its autonomous structure as an International Sports Federation. In this way SU-DS will be developing along the lines recommended by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) for the governance of sport for disabled people.
In 2016 all the Organisations will come together for the first World Trisome Games for all the sports registered with SU-DS.
Ultimately, SU-DS will approach the International Paralympic Committee for it to recognise the disability of Down syndrome as a new class. Currently, athletes with Down syndrome can only compete in Paralympic sports as athletes with an Intellectual Disability. However, the addition physical disabilities that are inherent with Down syndrome means that these athletes are out-performed by athletes with Intellectual Disability who have no physical disability to further disadvantage them.