This total of 5,000 athletes includes the 600 new athletes approved for international competition, more than double the figure reached in previous years.

INAS have also revealed that 500,000 people saw information about the organisation on social media last year whilst they also had 230,000 visits to their website, relaunched last year.

Marc Truffaut, elected as President of INAS in 2017, expressed his pride at the record numbers.

"The record increases in the number of athletes who joined INAS last year and the impressive digital figures show that INAS’ mission is reaching more people than ever before," he said.

"We manage a wide variety of summer and winter sports, the majority of which are outside the Paralympic programme.

"It is a joy to see so much new potential joining us across the board, even in lower-profile sports, and we look forward to adding even more depth to the field of athletes.

"Of course, these figures represent those athletes who registered for international competition – many more got involved at a national level across our membership.

"We also welcomed our three newest members, Bahrain, Morocco and the World Taekwondo Federation - our first International Federation member.

"This has expanded our reach further and we are fielding enquiries from organisations all over the world who are interested in joining us."

INAS claim that the introduction of two trial groups - II2, for athletes with a more significant intellectual impairment, and II3, for athletes with high-functioning autism, have helped them become a more inclusive and open organisation and therefore influenced the dramatic increase in numbers.

They also believe that debut international competitions for equestrian, hockey and judo helped increase INAS’ popularity last year.

A further 11 World Championships or international events were also held in athletics, cycling, skiing, futsal, swimming, basketball, tennis, table tennis and cricket.

Additionally, swimming and table tennis were live-streamed for the first time.

"It is clear that our vision that athletes with intellectual impairments across the world have the opportunity to achieve excellence in sport has taken a huge step forward," Truffaut said.

"My colleagues and I on the [INAS] Board will continue to work tirelessly to ensure we capitalise on our successes in 2018.

"We have another busy year with the launch of a project to encourage more female athletes and leaders, an eligibility conference, new regions and sports council gatherings and various championships taking place.

"I would like to thank everyone, especially the volunteers, who make it all possible.

"We are in a strong position for the coming years, which will no doubt deliver even greater opportunities for Para-sport and athletes.”

The next edition of the Global Games, INAS' premier event, is due take place in Brisbane in Australia next year.