At the 26th ICSD Congress in Cologne, three cities submitted their candidature to host the 15th Deaflympics: Los Angeles (USA), Tokyo (Japan) & Christchurch (New Zealand). Los Angeles won the vote with barely 1 vote difference in the 2nd round: 37 versus 36 votes....
Belgium won a few medals with 15 athletes (7 men & 8 women): 1 golden, 2 silver and 3 bronze medals.
1.053 athletes from 29 countries (Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Great-Britain, Italy, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Ireland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Polen, West Germany, Israel, Japan, Korea, India, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Columbia, Mexico, Venezuela, Canada and the USA) participated in these Games with sports such as athletics, badminton, basketball, handball, swimming, water polo, football, volleyball, cycling, shooting, table tennis and tennis.
Notable facts were:
- for the first time, these Games were boycotted by communist countries, except Poland, Hungary & Yugoslavia participated anyway. Iran also refused to participate. As a result, the competition in Wrestling could not take place;
- the logo and medal was designed by American Robert A. Bye;
- for the first time Badminton was introduced as a new sport at these Games;
- Hong Kong & Korea competed for the very first time;
- The organisation could have been much better and there was also a big financial loss;
In the medal standings we saw : the USA finished in 1st place with 109 medals (46 gold, 30 silver and 33 bronze), while West Germany took 2nd place with 43 medals (8 gold, 21 silver and 14 bronze).
- Atletics
- Els Boen (°1962) : high jump (silver) & heptathlon(bronze).
- Micheline Van Dyck (°1959) : 100 m, 200 m & 400 m (6th place).
- Tennis
- Josette Robinson (°1941) : Singles & Doubles (with Nicole Robinson, 5th place).
- Nicole Robinson (°1941) : Singles (5th place) & Doubles (with Josette Robinson, 5th place).
- Cycling
- Gerald Troch (°1961) : time trial (bronze), road race (silver) & 1.000 m Sprint (5th place).
- Bernard Deschamps (°1944) : time trial (bronze) & 1.000 m Sprint.
- Johnny Schelpe (°1945) : time trial (7th place) & 1.000 m Sprint.
- Lucien Uzeel (°1946): road race (4th place) & time trial (6th place).
- Marc D'hondt (°1959) : time trial (8th place) & 1.000 m sprint (4th place).
- National Team (tijdrit 97,2 km) with D'hondt, Troch, Deschamps & Uzeel (gold).
- Table Tennis
- Keyser Jean-Claude (°1957) : Singles & Doubles (with Frank Van de Perre, 5th place).
- Van de Perre Frank (°1961) : Singles & Doubles (with Jean-Claude Keyser, 5th place).
- Myriam Trouet (°1946) : Singles & Doubles (with Monique Van Hauwermeiren, 5th place).
- Van Hauwermeiren Monique (°1952) : Singles & Doubles (with Myriam Trouet, 5th place).
- Christine Leonard (°1941) : Singles & Doubles (with Rywka Herszteyn, 5th place).
- Rywka Herszteyn (°1928) : Singles & Doubles (with Christine Leonard, 5th place).
