The Deaflympics in Taipei is the second international sports event in Taiwan this summer. Athletes, from 101 countries with hearing disabilities are here to compete and to reach personal goals.

September 5 - 15, 4000 participants competing in 20 sport events will be here in Taipei together with their coaches, to have an intense competition again each other, make friends and have a good time. Hopefully they will have some time to discover Taipei and its surroundings.

To be eligible to take part in the deaflympics, apart from being an outstanding sports person, you must have a hearing loss of at least 55db on your better hear. Sometimes hearing - impaired people live with a disturbing and frightening cacophony of partially audible sounds set against a partially deafening thunder. This, of course, reflex back on their performance and shows about 10 % gap between Olympians and Deaflympians.

To communicate with the participants during the games, special flashing lights and flags are going to be used. English, Chinese and sign-language are the official languages of the Deaflympics.

The mascot for the Summer Deaflympics is the lively Taipei green tree frog (Rhacophorus taipeianus), which is incredible lively and full of energy. To make sure both male and female participants will feel welcome, the mascot has a banyan leaf on the male frog and an azalea flower on the female. The banyan leaf and the azalea flower are the official Taipei tree and flower to symbolize the city's vision of a clean and environmentally friendly atmosphere for the games as well as for the future.