Wheelchair Sports, USA
| Abbreviation | WASUSA |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1956 |
| Location |
|
Membership | WASUSA is a membership organization. |
| Website |
wasusa |
Formerly called |
National Wheelchair Athletic Association Wheelchair Sports, USA |
Wheelchair & Ambulatory Sports USA (formerly the National Wheelchair Athletic Association and Wheelchair Sports USA) is an organization of the United States Olympic Committee/US Paralympics dedicated to promoting healthy lifestyles by implementing sports and recreation opportunities for children and adults with physical disabilities. Mostly a volunteer organization, WASUSA works in conjunction with local and regional sports clubs and associations to help develop and promote sanctioned sporting events for youths and adults with physical disabilities. Juniors make up approximately 70% of the membership.
Each year Wheelchair & Ambulatory Sports USA sponsors the National Junior Disability Championships (NJDC), also known as Junior Nationals, the longest continually run competition for athletes with disabilities in the United States.
History
Wheelchair & Ambulatory Sports USA has a long and storied history in providing competitive sports opportunities to individuals with disabilities. Founded in 1956 as the National Wheelchair Athletic Association, the early years of Wheelchair Sports were successful in large part due to the efforts of Benjamin Lipton, the Bulova Watch Company and the Bulova School of Watchmaking. Mr. Lipton was the Executive Director of the Bulova School of Watchmaking and served as the Chairman of NWAA for the first 25 years of its existence. Mr. Lipton ensured the viability of the organization during the early years by making the Bulova Company a primary financial supporter of NWAA. The initial impetus to organize NWAA grew out of the interests of athletes with disabilities - many of whom were veterans of World War II. They wanted to participate in sports other than basketball, a sport that had seen rapid growth in the early 1950s through teams sponsored by veterans hospitals and other rehabilitation agencies. General Omar N. Bradley was one of the leaders of the early efforts to develop wheelchair sports programs, principally for servicemen injured during the war. In the early days, many wheelchair basketball players saw participation in individual wheelchair sports as supplementary training for their primary interest in basketball. However, the NWAA program appealed to even greater numbers of athletes with disabilities due to the incorporation of women and athletes with quadriplegia, populations that could not be easily accommodated by Basketball. Europe’s first organized wheelchair sports program was introduced in 1948 by well-known neurosurgeon, Dr. Ludwig Guttman, founder of the Spinal Injury Center in Stoke Mandeville, England. The first Stoke Mandeville Games included only twenty-six participants, and few events (shot put, javelin, club throw, and archery) but growth in both the number of events and participants developed quickly.
In 1952, a team from the Netherlands was invited to compete with the British team. This was the first International Stoke Mandeville Games, an event that is generally recognized as the precursor to the present day Paralympic Games. The focus for NWAA and later, WSUSA, during the first four decades was competitive sports opportunities in the identified “core sports” for individuals utilizing wheelchairs for mobility. Following Mr. Lipton’s tenure, the national office of NWAA moved to Colorado Springs, CO in 1982 in an effort to be closer to the National Governing Bodies of the core sports of NWAA recognized by the US Olympic Committee. It was during this time frame that NWAA played a key role in putting competitive sports for athletes with disabilities on the international stage by promoting a series of exhibition events in Wheelchair Track at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
In 1994, the organizational name was changed to Wheelchair Sports, USA to more accurately reflect the organization’s mission. In the late 1990s and first decade of the 21st century, the national office relocated on several occasions, a reflection of the tough economic times of this period. The national office locations included Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri and a return to New Jersey in 2009, where the national office is currently located. It was during this tough economy that several Disabled Sports Organizations (DSO’s) that represented the sporting interests for a specific segment of the disabled population dissolved, including organizations representing athletes with Cerebral Palsy and “Les Autres” athletes. As a result of the loss of these organizations, Wheelchair Sports, USA found its mission changing dramatically from providing sports opportunities to individuals using wheelchairs to serving as a comprehensive competitive sports organization for all individuals with disabilities, both ambulatory and non-ambulatory. As a result, in 2010, the organizational name was changed to Wheelchair & Ambulatory Sports USA once more in an effort to better describe the mission that evolved for the organization. It was also within this time frame that WASUSA entered into a formal relationship with the International Wheelchair & Ambulatory Sports Federation (IWAS), an offshoot of the International Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Sports Federation. By virtue of this relationship, WASUSA found itself with a mechanism for providing quality competitive opportunities for athletes seeking to establish themselves on an international stage. This relationship continues to the present. Throughout the economic turmoil encountered by WASUSA, the organization has managed to host the preeminent competitive sports event for junior athletes (6 - 22) with disabilities in the United States continuously since 1984. Now known as the National Junior Disability Championships (NJDC) or “Junior Nationals”, the event has had several titles in its nearly 30 years of existence. The Junior Nationals is a week-long competition including Track, Field, Swimming, Archery, Powerlifting, Boccia, Table Tennis and other sporting events.
History of NJDC (Junior Nationals)
1984 Dover, Delaware 1985 Fishersville, Virginia 1986 Valley Forge, PA 1987 Lawrenceville, NJ 1988 Johnson City, TN 1989 Cupertino, CA DeAnza College 1990 Fort Collins, CO Colorado State University 1991 Princeton, NJ Princeton University 1992 Orlando, Florida Disney World 1993 Columbus, Ohio Ohio State University 1994 Edmond, Oklahoma Central Oklahoma University 1995 Fort Collins, CO Colorado State University 1996 Birmingham, AL Samford University 1997 Mesa, Arizona Mesa High School 1998 Bellevue, WA 1999 Albuquerque, NM 2000 San Jose, CA San Jose State University 2001 Piscataway, NJ Rutgers University 2002 New London, CT 2003 New London, CT 2004 Mesa, Arizona Mountain View High School 2005 Tampa, Florida 2006 Tampa, Florida 2007 Spokane, WA 2008 Piscataway, NJ Rutgers University 2009 St. Louis, Missouri 2010 Lake Forest, IL 2011 Saginaw, Michigan Saginaw State University 2012 Mesa, Arizona Mesa Community College 2013 Rochester, MN 2014 Ames, IA Iowa State University
Organization structure
Wheelchair & Ambulatory Sports USA has three regional councils (Western, Central and Eastern) dividing the United States for the purpose of coordinating, assisting and implementing local & regional meets; sanctioned, qualifying meets; and workshops & clinics for athletes and coaches in order to develop skills and knowledge. WASUSA also serves as support and consultation to state high school associations, conferences and schools that desire to provide inclusive opportunities to their student-athletes in the areas of Track, Field, Swimming, Archery and Tennis.
| WASUSA | Regional Councils (Eastern, Central, Western) | Local Chapters |
|---|---|---|
| National Governing Bodies | Track / Field | |
| Sport Technical Committees | Archery Powerlifting Swimming Table Tennis Air Rifle Air Pistol Fencing | |
Regional Point Organizations
WASUSA is broken down into three Regional Point Organizations: Western, Central and Eastern.
- Western RPO
- States: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming
- Central PRO
- Eastern PRO