Working Bodies
RIJEKA SPORTS ASSOCIATION FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT:
– Ivan Kombol
ASSOCIATION VICEPRESIDENT:
– Hrvoje Usmiani
EXECUTIVE BOARD:
– Ivan Kombol – President
– Hrvoje Usmiani – Vice President
– Ivica Tomičić – Member
SUPERVISORY BOARD:
– Jasna Lulić Drenjak – President
– Nedžad Dizdarević – Member
– Vedran Dumenčić – Member
SECRETARY:
– Luka Dobrović, mag. oec.
History
The Rijeka Sports Association for Persons with Disabilities was established on the basis of the Sports Act and the Associations Act of the Republic of Croatia. It was founded in Rijeka with the primary goal of promoting sports among young people, especially those with different types of disabilities. He was entered in the Register of Associations of the Republic of Croatia on July 17, 2009. Its mission is to integrate people with disabilities into society through sport and to contribute to the equal rights of all citizens and prevent the social exclusion of people with disabilities. The goals of the Association are defined by the Law on Sports (Article 48 and Article 53 of the Law), the Law on Associations of the Republic of Croatia and the Statute of the Association.
Basic activities of the association:
– Coordinating the activities of its members.
– Organization and implementation of competitions for persons with disabilities.
– Regulating issues related to the registration of athletes with disabilities, the status of athletes and other sports workers and the disciplinary responsibility of athletes and sports workers.
– Monitoring and consideration of current financial problems in sports for people with disabilities in Rijeka, as well as in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County.
– Promotion of professional work in sports and care for categorized athletes with disabilities.
The History Of Disability Sports in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County
Disability Sports in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County have long lasting and continuous time track. There are no documented data of the pre-World War activities, and the after war activities related to sports and recreation of disabled persons are mostly reported in the context of events and socialization of the disabled war veterans through the Associations of Veterans of National Liberation (NOR).
During the fifties, there are reported recreation activities in that time district of Rijeka, but with no organized sports competitions in the classical sense of paralympic sport as we know it today.
It was not until the seventies that former Yugoslavia experienced an increase in volume of disabled people doing sports. It is documented that in 1972 Yugoslavia took part at the Paralympic Games that were held in the German Heidelberg. Our athletes Milka Milinković and the late Ivica Pribanić participated at these Paralympics and they were the only athletes from the Croatia.
Sources from following period report more organized sports activities of athletes with disabilities in our county. It’s been founded the Rijeka Sports and Recreation Association of Persons with Disabilities, through which several dozens of persons with disabilities practice sports, still mostly recreationally.
Formally organized sports activities for people with disabilities in Croatia date back to 1965, when the Croatian Sports and Recreation Alliance of Persons with Disabilities is founded. In 1991 it got transformed in the Croatian Sports Alliance of Disabled Persons, and in 2006 it became the Croatian Paralympic Committee.
In 1973 in Rijeka, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, it was founded the Rijeka District Sports and Recreation Alliance for Persons with Disabilities. Later on it got its name changed to the Municipality of Rijeka Sports and Recreation Alliance.
After the Croatian independence from Yugoslavia, a newly formed Rijeka Sports and Recreation Association for Persons with Disabilities gathers around hundred and fifty persons with disabilities practicing several sports. Besides Rijeka association, there is another association in Kraljevica – Lanterna, and there are several individual athletes training in Lovran town and in Gorski Kotar district. Some athletes reached notable results in athletics, shooting, table tennis and in bowling.
After the adoption of the new Sports law, sports for deaf persons and persons with hearing problems was separated from the sports for persons with physical disabilities. That led to the foundation of Croatian Sports Alliance of Deaf Persons. It had a subsidiary in Rijeka – Rijeka Sports Alliance of Deaf Persons. In 2009 it was registered the new Rijeka Sports Association for Persons with Disabilities.
The sport of people with disabilities in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County is today quite well developed. According to the data of the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County is the largest number of sports association for persons with disabilities and largest number of athletes with disabilities, compared to other Croatian counties.
Primorje-Gorski Kotar County and the City of Rijeka grew seven paralympics athletes: late Ivica Pribanić and late Branko Šonje, Milka Milinković, Rudolf Petrović, Miroslav Matić, Vjekoslav Gregorović and Zoran Talić.
At the 2012 London Paralympic Games, our athlete Milka Milinković became the world’s only athlete who has participated nine times at the Paralympic Games. The same year we marked the great jubilee – forty years of the sports of persons with disabilities in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County.