Sports governing body

At its heart, IBSA is a high-performance sports organisation. This means that it governs and promotes sports for people with visual impairments. However in addition to its role as an advocate, IBSA is also officially responsible for the day-to-day running of a specific number of sports as an International Federation.

These are goalball, judo and blind football, all of which are contested every four years at the Paralympic Games.

In addition, IBSA governs showdown, powerlifting, nine and tenpin bowling, chess, torball and partially sighted football.

For all sports, IBSA ensures that each is constantly expanding into new countries, maintains rules and regulations, builds partnerships, has a suitable anti-doping programme and has a full and varied competition calendar which includes regional and World Championships and smaller events.

For the latter sports, IBSA advocates for their inclusion at the Paralympics where they meet the requirements of the International Paralympic Committee.