The Korean Paralympic Committee annually organises two big multi-sports events. One is the National Para Games for adults and the other event is the Youth Para Games for students.

Floorball was shown at the 6th Youth Para Games for the first time as a demonstration sport in 2012 and became an official sport among 15 sports in 2013. Five floorball teams participated in 2012 and seven teams participated in the event in Daegu City this year.

- As the Korean Floorball Federation (KFF) had a good experience from the 2013 PyeongChang Special Olympics floorball tournament and we decided to continue with the same tournament model as in the Special Olympics World Games demo, says Hwang Joo Kim from the KFF.

The KFF used one official size floorball court for the main event and has another small court for warming up.

- Our goal was to make floorball a different and special sport in the Para Games and let the players enjoy, coaches enjoy and supporters enjoy the sport. We wanted everyone to enjoy the event, Kim continues.

Mr. Taekyun Ha from the Daegu Paralympic Committee was also impressed by the floorball tournaments:

-  I´ve been to many sports venues, but feel that the atmosphere at the floorball venues is different compared with other sports. The atmosphere here is more like in the international tournaments. I can expect floorball can be the best sport in Youth Paralympic games and I feel that the development of floorball is very fast.

Korean Paralympic Committee organises the biggest annual tournament called the National Para Games every October. At the moment only sports recognised by the International Paralympic Committee are official sports at this event.

The next goal for the KFF is to make floorball for intellectually disabled players and manual wheelchair floorball a demo sport on the National Para Games. This could happen within 2-3 years.

1st Manual Wheelchair demonstration

In addition to the Special Olympics tournament there was also a manual wheelchair floorball demonstration game played at the Youth Para Games 2013. The Chairman of the Para Games organising committee, Mr. Sun Hak Bae, watched this game.

The Wheelchair demo was played between the Incheon city and JeonJu city teams and the players were thrilled to have the opportunity to play the demo.

-  Floorball is fun and safe and good for exercise, a better sport than other wheelchair team sports like wheelchair rugby or basketball, one of Jeonju players commented after the game.

The Korean Floorball Federation thought both the Special Olympics floorball and the manual wheelchair demo tournaments were great events and the KFF is now planning to develop also the wheelchair floorball sport step by step.

Special Olympics results:

1. Incheon city
2. Daegu city
3. Chungbuk province and Kyounggi province

In the Special Olympics final, Incheon city defeated Daegu city with only 1-0 in the final.

Awarded Special Olympics players:
Best Goalie
Lee Young Taek, Incheon

Best Defenders
Hong Jun Mok, Kyounggi
Hong Seok Hyun, Daegu

Best Forwards
Choi Ho Yeon, Chungbuk
Kim Kyoung Ho, Incheon
Pyun Seoung Min,Daegu

MVP
Yoo Sung Moo, Incheon

More photos:

Source & more information: Korean Floorball Federation