Memorandum submitted by the British Paralympic
Association
PRE AND
POST PARALYMPIC
GAMES
Health of the Nation issues are particularly
crucial for people with a disability and sport can play a significant
role in achieving healthy citizens. Sport For All campaigns have
been good slogans, but reality has often meant that people with
a disability have been denied access to sporting venues and sporting
opportunities and are excluded within the school sport system.
Poor pathways within the disability and non-disability sports
sectors mean that children and young people with a disability
have limited opportunities to try a variety of sports and if they
do show talent, are unlikely to achieve inclusion in performance
programmes. In order to-create and support paralympic athletes
for 2012, we need to prioritise and focus on the following children
and young people with a disability:
— opportunities within schools and
linkage to sport;
— access to, or inclusion in, stage
two talent development;
— adequate coaching/training and events
at youth and senior level; and
— good high performance pathways from
national levels to international level.
The post 2012 legacy will be the establishment
of adequate opportunities for children and young people with disabilities
to enjoy sport at all levels, with good programmes of inclusion
where this is possible and desirable and support for specialist
programmes where this is the main option.
MARKETING, PUBLICITY
AND STATUS
The Bid did a wonderful job in emphasising the
inclusive approach to venue design and infrastructure planning
in relation-to the transition from Olympic to Paralympic mode.
The underlying principle was that people with a disability could
work on the Olympic and Paralympic Games, could offer themselves
as volunteers for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games, could
have equal access as spectators for both the Olympic and Paralympic
Games and compete in the Paralympic Games with the highest level
of support, quality venues and infrastructure.
The prestige gained by the British Paralympic
Team in finishing second in both Sydney and Athens could be lost
within the UK, if there is not proper recognition that there are
two major "Games", ie the Olympic Games and the Paralympic
Games, occurring separately within two weeks of each other. Marketing
and promotion of the Paralympic Games will need to be separate
if we are to obtain all the benefits from being the founder of
the Paralympic movement and the fact that the Paralympic Games
are coming back home to Britain, having been established here
in 1948. Representation needs to be considered on the ODA of a
Paralympic representative and a separate publicity strategy may
need to be established.
October 2005
| 
